Thousands of people are expected to take to the streets this afternoon to protest against the Government’s planned cutbacks in December’s budget.

Demos to oppose public spending cuts have been arranged for Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Waterford, Sligo, Tullamore and Dundalk.

Union leaders are urging both public service and private sector workers to take to the streets this afternoon to show their opposition to proposed Government cutbacks.

The demonstrations – organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions – will take place in Dublin and other locations around the country at half past two.

The demonstrations have been organised as part of the Get Up, Stand Up campaign.

Congress is hoping that thousands of people will come out at half two this afternoon and send a message to Government that the public are opposed to spending cuts.

But already unions are preparing the ground in case the numbers who come out this afternoon are small – IMPACT’s Peter McLoone said “I can’t speculate on how many are going to turn out”.

“The weather forecast is not going to be very favourable, but we’ll see” he added.

And while the Government has been keen to say it has no other choice but to make the cuts in December’s budget, Ministers will take stock of what happens today.

Because they know that this is just the start of a union campaign that could culminate in a public sector strike on November 24th.