Workers across Ireland are embarking on a mass protest today to fight pay and spending cuts.

Thousands of public and private sector employees are set to take to the streets in eight major towns and cities for a series of regional rallies.

The National Day of Action comes as part of an Irish Congress of Trade Unions campaign opposing high unemployment, pay cuts and spending reductions.

A further 10 smaller rallies are planned in Northern Ireland.

Congress general secretary David Begg said he hoped the protests would prevent potential cuts of four billion euro in the December Budget.

"The situation is very bad but our feeling is that if the Government goes with this crash programme it could do a lot of damage," he said.

"It will have a huge deflationary shock effect on the economy, making unemployment much worse and the lives of people much worse.

"We're recommending that the adjustment is made over a longer period of time and in the course of doing that we preserve the fabric of society."

The umbrella group said its campaign - There Is Still A Better, Fairer Way - will run at least until the day of Budget 2010 in December and possibly beyond.