Thousands attend debt burden marches across the country

Thousands of people have taken part in protests organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions in a number of cities across the country.

 Debt burden marches took place in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Sligo, Limerick and Waterford.

ICTU said over 110,000 people took part in the demonstrations. However, local and garda estimates put the number at around 50,000.

The largest event took place in Dublin, where gardaí said up to 25,000 people took part.

Mr Begg told the crowd that they would be campaigning with the 60 million trade union members in the European Trade union confederation.

He said the situation where Irish people were paying 42% of the European banking debt burden was not fair.