This article is from page 9 of the 2008-07-08 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
THE number of adults unemployed in Clare has jumped by more than one third in the last year, and by 9.3 per cent in the past month accord- ing to figures released by the Central Statistic Office.
As many as 5,505 people were sign- ing on last month in County Clare, 1,375 people more than during the same month last year.
The number of people on the live register in the Tulla area has in- creased by as much as 52 per cent from June 2007 to last month.
Unemployment in Ennistymon has increased by 40 per cent with 806 people signing on the register.
In the county town of Ennis there are now 32 per cent more people un- employed than this time last year, as 3,293 people are signing on.
In Kilrush the unemployment in- crease is the lowest in the county, but it has still increased by almost 20 per cent.
There are now some 1,067 more men unemployed in the county than i (eyenles tb
Fine Gael TD Pat Breen said this was only the tip of the iceberg with more Clare workers set to join the dole queues over the coming months.
“For the past twelve months jobs have been haemorrhaging from County Clare however in spite of nu- merous warnings this Government have sat idly by while the crisis de-
veloped,” he said.
“Unemployment in Clare has grown by 33.3 per cent in the year from June 2007 to June 2008 and especially worrying is the fact that the number of those unemployed under 25 has increased by 46.6 per cent from 759 in June 2007 to 1,113 in June 2008,” the TD added.
“The truth is that ordinary workers are bearing the brunt of this Govern- ments economic ineptitude and this is especially true here in County Clare. We are also now witnessing how the lack of connectivity from Shannon to
London Heathrow is adding substan- tial costs to local businesses as a re- sult of the Government’s failure to act to secure the service,” he said.
“My call for a regional strategy to address this crisis has fallen on deaf ears. In fact this Government has sleepwalked it’s way through much of this crisis. Next week following months of not recognising that there is a crisis, the Government will out- line to the Dail how they intend to deal with the current crisis.”