By Andras Gergely
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish taxi drivers and airport workers protested on Friday over job prospects and bus drivers threatened to strike, showing rising discontent over Ireland's deepening economic woes.
Cabinet ministers have warned of increasing anger in the financial crisis which has already prompted an unusually large demonstration of about 100,000 people last month, a civil service strike and a rare protest by off-duty police officers.
Hundreds of taxis converged on the city centre on Friday to press regulators to limit the number of licences as drivers said it was becoming impossible for them to make a living.
Police also warned of traffic delays at Dublin airport where workers at aircraft maintenance group SR Technics were protesting against redundancy plans there.
The demonstrations followed a lunchtime protest on Thursday by civil servants against a new pension levy imposed on public workers, the main item in the government's 2 billion euro (1.89 billion pounds) fiscal tightening programme so far this year.
Dublin bus drivers also threatened to hold a strike before the end of the month unless the company drops cost cutting plans.
"We feel we have no alternative at that juncture but to carry out the mandate of our members which is to enter into a strike situation," said Willie Noone of the SIPTU trade union.
The government is presenting a mini-budget on April 7, the second emergency budget since October, to stop the deficit from rising above the 9.5 percent of GDP projected for this year.
The government said it would be able to address what it called a "very serious" fiscal situation without needing any bailout from other euro zone countries.
"We are in a very serious situation, there is no doubt about that," Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said.
"We are determined to take decision that will take us through not just to the end of this year but through 2010 and 2011 and to give confidence to the international markets that Ireland will deal with these issues."
Data on Friday showed retail sales fell by more than 20 percent in January from a year earlier, prompting some economists to question whether the government's forecast for a 6 percent GDP contraction this year was looking too optimistic.
(Reporting by Andras Gergely)