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Gardaí outside Leinster House on Budget Day 2009.
Image: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
Gardaí outside Leinster House on Budget Day 2009.
Image: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland
EXTRA GARDA UNITS will be on hand around Leinster House today with protests expected as the government prepares to announce the details of Budget 2014 this afternoon.
Finance Minister Michael Noonan will kick off the announcements from 2.30pm today and while both he and the Taoiseach have promised there’ll be some good news, gardaí in Dublin City are preparing for the worst.
One garda source told TheJournal.ie “they’re expecting trouble”. “It’s almost as bad with protests as the dying days of the Fianna Fáil-Greens government”, they said.
Extra units from Pearse Street Garda Station will be on duty at Leinster House from early morning as well as after the announcement.
Last month, two people were hospitalised after gardaí used pepper spray during a protest outside Leinster House, and a number of arrests were made for public order offences. According to one garda source, there appears to be “a panic on” since the Dáil Lockout protest which saw gardaí using an unusual level of force against the angry protesters during scuffles.
Organisers of the Dáil Lockout have planned another protest to start from this morning with just over 800 people on Facebook saying they will attend.
Read: ‘The Budget will not be easy’: Howlin and Noonan’s video preview of Budget 2014>
Read: Here’s why this year’s Budget is being held in October
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