22 Join Blanchardstown Dole Every Working Day in June
July 2, 2010
460 more people signed on for the dole at the Blanchardstown Social Welfare office in June than in May 2010.
This staggering monthly spike, which equates to 22 people every working day for the month of June, can only be partly explained by season factors like the end of term for students and temporary employees in the education sector.
Despite Fianna Fáil bluster that Ireland is “out of recession” and that the economy has turned a corner, the sad reality is that the real recession is far from over for the 8,565 people out of work in Blanchardstown alone.
This week, the national live register figure breached reached an all-time high of over 450,000 as unemployment re-started its relentless rise after several months of stabilisation.
When you add to these local and national numbers the many people who have emigrated in the past two years and the many who have given up looking for work and left the workforce, it is quite clear that Fianna Fáil’s unemployment epidemic shows no sign of ending any time soon.
The Government is talking a good talk and would have us believe that their ‘tough decisions’ are bearing fruit, and that the economy has ‘turned a corner’. The Minister for Finance has seized on the quarterly national accounts, published today by the CSO, to proclaim that ‘Ireland is out of recession’ because GDP grew in the first three months of the year.
Long-term unemployment is the single greatest social and economic challenge facing the country, but the Fianna Fáil government continues to obsess with the mess it created in the public finances and the banking system.
Fianna Fáil’s approach to the economy is self-defeating. By focussing almost exclusively on bailing out the banks, the government has lost sight of what is really important. They have so far refused a tackle a jobs crisis that continues to spiral out of control.
The Labour Party has proposed a series of job creation initiatives including:
• A Strategic Investment Bank which would use €2bn, less than 10% of the total, from the National Pension Reserve Fund to support commercial investments of up to €20bn in critical infrastructure projects and innovative start-ups and SMEs.
• An SME Working Capital Guarantee Scheme which would ensure that viable small and family businesses can get the loans they need.
• A €1.15bn jobs fund to support training schemes and labour intensive capital investment.
• A Graduate & Apprentice Programme which would guarantee relevant, work-based training and an opportunity to obtain new qualifications for all young people out of work.
This staggering monthly spike, which equates to 22 people every working day for the month of June, can only be partly explained by season factors like the end of term for students and temporary employees in the education sector.
Despite Fianna Fáil bluster that Ireland is “out of recession” and that the economy has turned a corner, the sad reality is that the real recession is far from over for the 8,565 people out of work in Blanchardstown alone.
This week, the national live register figure breached reached an all-time high of over 450,000 as unemployment re-started its relentless rise after several months of stabilisation.
When you add to these local and national numbers the many people who have emigrated in the past two years and the many who have given up looking for work and left the workforce, it is quite clear that Fianna Fáil’s unemployment epidemic shows no sign of ending any time soon.
The Government is talking a good talk and would have us believe that their ‘tough decisions’ are bearing fruit, and that the economy has ‘turned a corner’. The Minister for Finance has seized on the quarterly national accounts, published today by the CSO, to proclaim that ‘Ireland is out of recession’ because GDP grew in the first three months of the year.
Long-term unemployment is the single greatest social and economic challenge facing the country, but the Fianna Fáil government continues to obsess with the mess it created in the public finances and the banking system.
Fianna Fáil’s approach to the economy is self-defeating. By focussing almost exclusively on bailing out the banks, the government has lost sight of what is really important. They have so far refused a tackle a jobs crisis that continues to spiral out of control.
The Labour Party has proposed a series of job creation initiatives including:
• A Strategic Investment Bank which would use €2bn, less than 10% of the total, from the National Pension Reserve Fund to support commercial investments of up to €20bn in critical infrastructure projects and innovative start-ups and SMEs.
• An SME Working Capital Guarantee Scheme which would ensure that viable small and family businesses can get the loans they need.
• A €1.15bn jobs fund to support training schemes and labour intensive capital investment.
• A Graduate & Apprentice Programme which would guarantee relevant, work-based training and an opportunity to obtain new qualifications for all young people out of work.