Monday, February 23, 2009

Gardai to protest


The Gardai (Irish police force) were on duty last Saturday for the public service pension levy march. Of course you do need as many police around as possible when you have 120,000 protesters so they had to put up with some shouts of "why aren't you marching with us", of varying levels of friendliness, from the crowd walking past their cordons around the Dail.

They get their turn to stand out side the Dail and shout at the government next Wednesday marching from Parnell Sq to the Dail. Interestingly the GRA have put forward some suggestions to the government that went beyond the usual "don't make us pay it's not fair" that comes out of most trade unions.
"We asked Government to consider legislation to write down mortgages by 20%. We also asked the Government to consider legislation that would allow people on fixed rate mortgages to be allowed to switch to variable rates without penalty. Their silence is deafening.

I like the 20% write down idea. The government is giving billions in taxpayers money to the banks to cover bad loans from property developers so I like the idea that instead of writing off huge property debts write off 20% of everyones debt and see if that stimulates the economy and restores confidence. Seems very unfair to those of us renting and with no mortgages or to those who spent their whole lives paying off theirs but it does seem better than just paying off the debts of a few millionaires.

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