Government jobs strategy fails to help long-term unemployed – Calleary

Published on: 14 January 2015


Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Dara Calleary has responded to the Government announcement that it will create 40,000 jobs this year and deliver full employment by 2018.

Deputy Calleary commented: “Today we have seen yet more promises about what the Government intends to do into the future instead of dealing with the realities for people who are unemployed at the moment.  The reality is many of the jobs being created in the economy at the moment are low paid with zero-hour contracts and this is leaving thousands of people still struggling to make ends meet every week.

“The Government is simply not doing enough to promote indigenous business and support small firms and the self-employed.  One main difficulty is the long-term unemployment crisis.  What we need is a retraining element because a lot of the activation schemes are not leading to jobs for many people who participate.  There is no sense in having 87,000 people on an activation schemes in order to massage the figures unless there is certainty of employment at the end of scheme.

“We need to look at not just the job creation figures the government is putting out but the data on wages as well.  Is the Government creating jobs that people can afford to live on? It is also important to note that despite being announced on several occasions the Low Pay Commission has still not been appointed.

“Not only are we seeing a lot of under employment in the economy there is a regional imbalance to the job creation that is taking place.  Only 37% of IDA investments in 2014 were made outside Dublin and Cork.  More regional job creation is crucial to support the economic viability of towns across the country.

“With 165,000 people on the Live Register for over a year and more than 80,000 people signing on for over three years I don’t believe it is right for the Government to be talking up ‘full employment’.  Until we have put in place schemes that are really going to lead people from welfare to work, and work they can live on, it is folly to talk of full-employment.”

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