Clare unemployment figures continue to spiral – Government needs to wake up – BREEN.

January 21st, 2009 - Pat Breen
Deputy Breen was commenting following the release of the December 2008 Live register figures which show a yearly increase of 59.8% in the number of people signing on in County Clare in the past year.”Over the past month alone an additional 8.1% or 559 people have signed on at the various local offices throughout the County. 291 in Ennis or 7.3%; 81 in Ennistymon or 7.1%; 94 in Kilrush or 10.1% and 93 in Tulla or 10.3%. and over the past twelve months the numbers signing on in County Clare have risen from 4696 to 7503 a whopping 59.8%.”

“Unemployment among the Under 25 age group is of serious concern. Over the past twelve months the number signing on in this category has risen by 655 or 8.3%. Of the 1491 registered unemployed at the 31st December 2008 in County Clare 1009 were Males with 482 Females.”

“Nationally 510 people are joining the dole queues every day and in

Brian Cowan’s first years as Taoiseach we have witnessed the biggest increase in unemployment since records began with 121,100 more people on the dole.”

 

“This Region has been hit hard and only last week Dell announced the axing of 1900 jobs at their plant in Raheen. Many of those workers live here in County Clare and over the next 12 months we can expect the live register figures to continue to soar as these workers join many others who are been made redundant throughout the County”"According to the ESRI this upward trend in unemployment figures is set to continue. They predict that another 120,000 jobs will be lost this year, bringing unemployment to more than 400,000 by the end of the year.”

“The Government must wake up and deal with this crisis. They have no response to the rising unemployment levels. They continue to ignore this Region and our declining competitiveness. The Government must cut the red tape to help small businesses and reverse the hike in VAT announced in the Budget which is driving consumers over to the North to do their shopping as a first step.”

“Last week we heard a lot about the setting up a Mid-West Task Force following the job losses at Dell. Today, my Party Leader Enda Kenny met with all Mid-West Fine Gael Public representatives to hear how to hear how recent job loss announcements are affecting investment and jobs in this Region and now we can address our Region’s declining competitiveness.”

“Sadly a week on from the Dell announcement we have had no action from Government; how can we be expected to have confidence in this Region when Government leadership is glaringly absent.”