Countrywide anti-austerity protests today
Anti-austerity protests will get underway this afternoon in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, Waterford and Sligo.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, who organised the protests, are calling on the Government to lift the burden of debt for people and focus on creating jobs.
Despite the recent deal on the promissory notes, the union insists 1.8 million working people cannot possibly sustain a bank-debt burden of €64bn.
"This so-called deal on the Anglo Irish Bank means that every single penny that was given to bailed out bondholders and bankers has to be paid back by the Irish people, except over a longer period of time," said Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins.
"It doesn't make a fundamental difference to the harsh suffering that austerity has caused and is causing our people.
"Therefore today's protests are a demand for an end to that policy."
