Ó Cuív defends Coalition policies as jobless rate hits 16-year high

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday defended its performance following the publication of Live Register figures for July, which saw the unemployment rate rising to its highest level in 16 years.

Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív blamed seasonal factors on the latest rise. “The rise in the Live Register figures, which is common in the summer and due to seasonal factors, will be reversed in the autumn,” he said.

Many who came on the Live Register since May were on the back to education allowance, he added. A 20 per cent decrease in redundancy claims so far this year showed “that economy recovery is on the way”, he said.

Government policies were “helping Ireland to emerge from recession and to avoid another period of protracted recession” Mr Ó Cuív added. However, the Opposition accused the Government of failing to tackle the problem. The figures represent the human cost of failed policies, Fine Gael employment spokesman Richard Bruton said, describing the surge in the number of unemployed as “extremely worrying”.

“These figures point to a stark conclusion: that the Governments strategy will at best produce jobless growth,” Mr Bruton said.

“The hard question that must be asked of Government policy is whether there is any element of it that is successfully addressing this employment crisis,” he said.

This represented the second phase of unemployment “with huge job losses hitting white-collar workers, mainly women, as the recession takes hold,” he said.

He highlighted the “dramatic impact” that the recession was having on young people with 80 per cent of the jobs lost in the past two year belonging to those under 30. Solving the the jobs crisis had dropped to the bottom of the Government’s agenda, Labour enterprise spokesman Willie Penrose said, adding that emigration was the only factor that had prevented the unemployment figures from getting closer to half a million.

“When it comes to tackling this problem, this Fianna Fáil/Green Government is like a deer caught in the headlights,” he said.

While the Government had a strategy to rescue banks and introduce cutbacks, they had no strategy to tackle unemployment, he said, criticising cutbacks which did not create jobs and were more likely to increase the number of people unemployed by taking money out of the economy.

CASE STUDIES: LIFE ON THE DOLE

Selena Deane (34), an unemployed social care worker, was employed in a private residential home for teenagers in care but made redundant four weeks ago.

She has applied for social welfare and is awaiting a PRSI-related social welfare payment. She has a BA in sociology, politics and philosophy from NUIG and seven years' experience in social care but she feels the prospects of getting work in her field are limited.

Although she is applying for a job with the HSE she feels that, given the number of people who will probably apply, that she is unlikely to get it. "Even yesterday I was thinking where am I going, what am I going to do? There's not much work out there. It feels like a waste of college. It's quite bleak. I'm not very hopeful really… It's a very unsure time. It's actually quite scary, genuinely scary.

"I did have plans to go back to college to do counselling but now being made redundant I just don't have the cash flow to do it.

"When you're earning money, you get used to a certain lifestyle. Not that it was extravagant or anything but it paid the bills."

Brendan Mac Evilly (26)from Rathfarnham had been working in publishing but has been unemployed since his contract expired in January. He has a degree in English and philosophy and a masters in arts, policy and practice from NUI Galway.

Having spent three months living in Berlin on savings, he returned to Ireland in late April and went on the dole in May.

He was offered a job in Oxford University Press yesterday and will now follow a number of his friends who have gone to work in England and elsewhere.

"A few of my friends are over in London already working and I have a few more friends who are thinking about going there as well. I've a couple of friends in Australia – it seems to be London, Australia and the US if they can get visas.

"I've been applying for around five jobs a week for entry-level publishing jobs in London but there would have been just one similar job advertised in Ireland in the past six months.

"If I was offered an equally good job in Ireland I would take it, but I definitely thought there was no point in applying here. I could have sent unsolicited CVs and cover letters but I'd heard through the grapevine that people weren't hiring so I didn't see the point."

He believes some companies have used the recession to use graduates as interns instead of hiring them. "The number of jobs has dropped but the number of unpaid internships has gone through the roof. . .

"When things pick up, companies know that people want to have experience on their CV and the unfortunate thing is that people have no other choice."

David Giblin (22)from Donegal town was let go from his job last Christmas having worked in a hotel for three years. He has been on social welfare for the past 10 weeks having used his PRSI related social welfare "stamps" previously. "It's hard enough, especially now. There's a ton of people out of work . . . When I went for one job I knew at least 20 people who applied for it in the town alone.

"I took out a loan in the credit union when I was working, for holidays and stuff like that ,so I have to pay that off. That's €100 gone every week so I'm living on €90. But you adjust – that's all you can really do. You might go out once a month instead of going out every weekend.

Being on the dole is frustrating: "You go stir crazy. Either you find something to occupy yourself or you'd turn into one of those alcos who spends all their dole money on booze. You have to keep your mind occupied and just apply for every job going."

Pamela Duncan