Unions linked to Right2Water say they are using the movement's platform to campaign change in areas like homelessness and health care, with water charges just “the tip of the austerity iceberg.”

The unions - which include Unite, Mandate and the TEEU - say they will be holding 'town hall meetings' across Ireland in the coming months, after Saturday’s national protest action against water charges, which they hope will see tens of thousands take to the streets in protest. Community groups and political groups are also in the Right2Water group.

Right2Water Organiser Brendan Ogle said that Saturday’s march, including “tens of thousands of trade union members” around the country will send the message “the time for business as usual is over. The time for change is now.” Mr Ogle called the anti-water charge protests "the greatest mobilisation of people power seen since the foundation of the state."

Abolishment of water charges is the first aim, Mr Ogle says, before a change to: “the type of society we live in to one based on equality, fairness and solidarity rather than one based on greed and exploitation.”

Mandate General Secretary John Douglas says he believes anti-water charge candidates will be a leading voice at the polls - and won't be limited to a single issue, with water charges just the “tip of the austerity iceberg”.

“Right2Water is about opposition to water charges and the defence of a public good – but it is also about much more. The hundreds of thousands who have taken to the streets of our towns and cities under the Right2Water banner know that water charges are just the tip of the austerity iceberg.”

“Just months before the centenary of 1916, Ireland is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world where hundreds of thousands of us struggle to just get by. Only yesterday we learnt 300,000 children are in need of the means-tested Back-to-School allowance in order to help meet the costs of our supposedly free education system. At the same time, a relatively small few flourish in barely imaginable wealth."

Saturday's march will take place on O'Connell street in Dublin, with assembly points at Heuston station and Connolly station. Marchers will meet at two pm. It will be the fifth such protest organised by the group.