Hundreds Of Irish Police Protest At Budget Cuts

Hundreds of Irish police officers demonstrated on Wednesday against plans to make them pay a pension levy to shore up the public finances, an unusual display of discontent among the rank and file.

Prime Minister Brian Cowen is under pressure from Brussels and ratings agencies to slash the ballooning budget deficit, but the leader of his coalition partner, the Green Party, warned this week of rising anger about cutbacks.

Police officers wearing civilian clothing and waving placards saying "Angry, Betrayed, Disillusioned" and "Share the Pain", marched to parliament, where lawmakers were expected to vote in favour of the pension levy later in the day.

"There is no doubt that there is a problem with the public finances and that this levy or some type of income reduction across the public service is going to happen," said Michael Ryan, a police officer from the western county of Clare. "(But) if someone takes 10 percent of your salary you have to say I'm not happy anyway," Ryan told Reuters.

On Saturday, some higher-ranking police officers joined a demonstration by about 100,000 people who accused the government of leaving ordinary workers with the bill for Ireland's economic woes and letting banks and property developers off the hook.

Green Party leader John Gormley warned on Monday of a "storm of anger" over the recession and a series of banking scandals. He said he was worried about the involvement of police sergeants and inspectors in Saturday's rally.

Ireland's traditionally peaceful industrial relations have ruptured over government efforts to cut spending and use taxpayers' money to bail out struggling, scandal-hit banks.

Thousands of civil servants, from tax officers to parliament staff, will hold a full-day strike on Thursday in protest against the pension levy.

The government has insisted it will press ahead with its fiscal reforms, pointing to the relative job security public sector workers enjoy in what is expected to be Ireland's worst recession on record this year.

"I don't believe strikes would contribute very much, nothing in fact, towards trying to address the problems that we have," Cowen said.

On a positive note, strikes planned by transport workers over the weekend against separate cost-cutting plans have been cancelled after the Dublin Bus company agreed not to implement redundancy plans, unions said on Wednesday.