Describing the latest unemployment figures for Longford/Westmeath as absolutely shocking, the Labour Party team said that the Government now had to recognise the rise in unemployment as a national crisis and begin to take some effort to stem the job losses and put people back to work.
Since the Fianna Fail Government was returned to office in May 2007, the numbers on the Live Register in Longford have increased by 2294 (113.23 per cent ), Mullingar by 1946 (101.20 per cent ), Athlone by 1674 (118.81 per cent ), and most alarmingly Castlepollard by 689 (171.82 per cent ) in real terms and in percentage terms.
Every job lost is a personal tragedy for the worker concerned and can create huge economic problems for a family. However, every additional job lost also costs the Irish economy an additional €20,000 through extra social welfare payments and the loss of tax revenue. The cost to the country of the increase in unemployment over the past year is now close to €2.5bn.
According to the Labour Party, Government representatives insist that public finances must be in order before they can tackle unemployment. However the Labour Party feels that the way to deal with the public finances is to sort out the jobs problem.
“We simply cannot allow the rate of job loss to continue in this or any other part of the country. We need the sort of stimulus package suggested by the Labour Party leader, Eamon Gilmore to get the economy moving again and put the population back to work. This would include measures such as an emergency schools building programme, regeneration packages for towns and villages, and a national insulation scheme to make our housing stock more energy efficient,” said a Labour Party representative.
“Doing nothing, standing back and hoping that something will happen, is no longer an option given the scale of the jobs crisis.”
