Editor angry at "trumpeting" by jobless group

THE Evening Herald editor, Mr Paul Drury, has reacted angrily to what he said was efforts at trumpeting a self proclaimed victory" by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).

The group held a protest outside the newspaper's offices in Dublin yesterday over its front page report last Friday which claimed apparent discrepancies in Government figures suggested 60,000 people who work also draw the dole.

Mr Drury met a delegation from the group in his office, where he said it was never intended, in publishing the article, to cause distress to unemployed people. He did not realise the INOU would contact bother sections of the media" on the meeting and he is reviewing his "entire attitude to the issue".

The focus of the article, he said, was on the Government's live register and Labour Force Survey figures, and the difference between them. He agreed to publish a letter from the INOU and a "clarification", explaining that no injury to the unemployed was intended, but this agreement is now in doubt, Mr Drury suggested.

A spokeswoman for the INOU said they had not thought the meeting with Mr Drury was private. The protest was public, she said, and the delegation had to report back to the protesters.

About 12 people took part in the protest at Middle Abbey Street, some with banners which read "Knock the greedy, not the needy" and "Don't knock the unemployed, try the tax dodgers".

The INOU was particularly angry at the newspaper's use of the Labour Force Survey for its figures last Friday, rather than the live register. They say the figures fail to take into account people working at home, those who work part time, those who are on community employment schemes, or the 15,000 unemployed people between the ages of 55 and 65.

The Fianna Fail spokesman on labour affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, who attended the protest, called on the Government to give an explanation for the discrepancies between the two sets of figures.