FINE GAEL labour spokeswoman Deirdre Clune has warned of a summer of discontent as the number of people on the Live Register reached 423,400 in the latest unemployment figures for July.
Ms Clune said 520 people a day were losing their jobs and long-term unemployment was reaching a critical level.
“Ireland has never witnessed a job implosion on this scale. While Fianna Fáil’s inept response to this crisis is worrying enough, it’s terrifying that the Government doesn’t even realise we have a crisis,” she said.
Ms Clune said the job subsidy policy produced by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan during the week was “half-baked” and at best would only stop the jobs haemorrhage for 7½ weeks.
“No one in Government has realised that Ireland now has a significant number of long-term unemployed, with more than 200,000 people on the dole for more than a year. Long-term unemployment is much harder to tackle, but so far the Government hasn’t even started,” she said.
“Unless this is addressed effectively, and addressed soon, we will have a serious long-term unemployment problem for years to come.”
Ms Clune maintained that Fine Gael was the only party to produce a costed and effective set of proposals to protect and create jobs.
These included measures to create 100,000 new jobs from investments in green energy, broadband and water, as well as proposals to protect 80,000 jobs in small and medium enterprises.
Labour Party spokesman on enterprise and employment Willie Penrose said the Live Register figures were shocking as they amounted to an 83 per cent year-on-year increase in those claiming jobseekers’ benefit or assistance.
He said July was the 21st successive month in which the numbers on the Live Register had increased. “This is a calamitous situation, not just in economic terms, but, more importantly, for the hundreds of thousands of families across the country whose lives have been devastated by unemployment.”
Mr Penrose said the focus of Government policy had to be redirected to stopping the jobs haemorrhage and getting people back to work, adding that the job subsidy scheme could prove “wholly inadequate”.
“We need to temporarily nationalise the banks to get credit flowing again. We need to give employers tax breaks to take on additional workers. We need to provide a ‘bridge-the-gap’ work experience for graduates and apprentices. We need to launch a skills drive for people who have lost their jobs, including tax back for full-time study,” Mr Penrose said.
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Arthur Morgan said: “I find it very convenient that the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment re-announced her employment subsidy scheme for export companies the day before the CSO figures are released.”
