The Taoiseach has rejected a call from the Sinn Féin leader to resign over the budget cuts. Enda Kenny says he has a mandate to make serious decisions to rectify the economic mess he inherited from the previous government.

The Taoiseach has come under fire again over cuts to medical cards and the fact that older people took to the streets today to protest.

More than 1,000 senior citizens protested in central Dublin earlier against cuts to medical cards. Some 35,000 people will lose their medical cards under cutbacks announced last week.

The rally came five years to the day after a huge protest forced Fianna Fáil to scrap means testing for medical cards for pensioners.

Gerry Adams says the government has lost the faith of the people and has no mandate to implement the cuts in the budget.

The Sinn Féin president said calls for the resignation of the Minister for Health, describing them as a "no-brainer", but then went one further.

But the Taoiseach has defended the cuts, saying they are necessary.