'Our grandchildren will have to pay'

Below is a selection of interviews with people who marched in Dublin today.

Margaret Grehan and husband Billy, from Dublin Road, Limerick

“We travelled up especially from Limerick today.

“I’m here because of the state of the country, the people we’re having to bail out, the banks, the corruption that has gone on for years.

They gave and they told us that they could afford it – they should have known. They never thought of putting a reserve away. The people weren’t to know that the country was going into this state and now, we have to suffer while their salaries remain the same.

There’s no cuts for the people at the top. The bankers are walking free. The elderly who have worked all their lives - we’re having to pay it. Our children are paying for it and our grandchildren are going to have to pay.

We have three sons, all unemployed because of the situation. It’s just dreadful.

Greed got us into this, absolute greed. I mean their salaries – it’s sinful, it’s shameful but they have no shame unfortunately.

There needs to be a general election yes, but all politicians will have to pull up their socks. I watch the Dáil on television and there might be only six TDs in there, they are talking to themselves. It’s just totally wrong.

There’s no need for local councillors, the Senate, and in fairness we could skip the presidential election. Get rid of the ministerial cars, the jets. It’s just unbelievable.

I wouldn’t mind taking a cut if the cost of living was cut, but it’s not. For Heavens sake, they haven’t a brain between them.

I’m not hopeful for my sons and I’m not hopeful for my grandchildren, I’m sorry I have to say it, but I’m not.

I’m calling for honesty. That’s what our country needs now and we haven’t had a bit of it for the past couple of weeks."

Sinead Keane, Stillorgan, Dublin

"I've experienced being made redundant twice in the last three years.

I'm out college five years so I was lucky I got a good run, but it's been a very fast downturn. It's very sad to see what's happening.

I worked in the private health industry. One of the redundancies was a buyout and the company that bought us downsized and maybe that was a sign of what was coming. The next one was a new business that failed.

I'm doing some freelance work to keep me going for the meantime but I've applied for a visa for Australia. I wouldn't be able to afford to stay here past January. It's too expensive for me to stay here without work, so the
options are limited.

It doesn't feel like a choice to travel, I feel like I have to go so it's very different to anything I've ever felt. This is a necessity now. I can't emotionally to through another redundancy and its just not stable enough here to know what's going to happen.

I think greed is what got us into this, we got too far ahead of ourselves. I feel so angry with the government. We put them into power and I feel they've really jeopardised our democratic rights over the last two years.

We need a change of Government but we need a total change in politics. There needs to be way more honesty going on. At the end of the day, we're a democracy, we elected them but people feel we're living in a dictatorship. Everything has been taken out of our hands. I think that loss of control on top of the loss on the economic side of things is just too much for people."

Annie McNamara and husband Tom McNamara, Cork

"We travelled from Cork today, the whole family, relatives, in-laws, everyone we could round-up. I'm a student and my husband is an engineer.

I'm not a union person. I've never marched at anything before. This is my first march.

This is our kids' future they're playing with, they're going to destroy everything. You cut from education, you cut from healthcare, I mean what sort of life will they have? It's a disgrace.

It wasn't greed for new houses and new cars that created the debt, it was the fact that other banks came here and did stuff that they weren't allowed to do elsewhere. They've gambled away our future - and we let it happen,
right up to Brian Cowen. He let it happen and he encouraged it. He's after destroying this country.

Cuts have to happen but I want someone that we trust making those cuts. We do not trust Fianna Fáil, they failed us and that's it.

We're lucky enough to be middle class and I think we could take the cuts. The likes of the middle classes and the wealthy, we can afford to do that but other people can't. When you're talking about cutting minimum wage, it's
an absolute disgrace. When you're talking about cutting education and the teachers and resources for disability, these people can't afford it – we can, cut it from us.

I think everyone in the country should come out and protest because it's all of our futures that they are messing with."