'Too many kids are giving up'

Unemployment has become a regular feature in Irish society. Since the crippling recession of 2008, Ireland has steadily been making notable strides towards a stable, and encouraging economy.

During this current economic tempest, however, there are counties that are still struggling. County Wexford, for instance, was named one of the poorest counties in Ireland last year, but over the past few months, the southeast has seen a slight decrease in their unemployment figures.

With a high dependency on small business, and increased rates of second and third level education dropouts, 22 percent of the population in Wexford remains unemployed.

Peggy Walsh, a consultant for Citizen’s Advice, pinpoints the primary cause of the county’s instability and what needs to be done to rectify it.

“Unemployment numbers are so high because of the closure of a lot of manufacturing company closures over the past number of years, generations have worked in these and ... has been a huge loss to the employment sector, Wexford Electronics, and Carl Weiss were huge employers in the area, but recently shut down.

“The collapse of the construction industry also has had a huge impact on the jobs sector as that reached further as with the loss of income into the economy jobs were lost across the board as everyone felt the sting from small shops to B& B's to cleaners,” says Peggy.

The community work placement program, Tús, provides short-term working opportunities for the unemployed.

A representative from the initiative, Jason Browne, discusses the positive work being produced at Tús to reduce those unsettling unemployment numbers.

“There is 340 allocated places for Tús in County Wexford. When the Tús initiative first started 6 years ago it was more difficult to fill places but now there is a waiting list with many people ‘self-referring’ for a place on Tús,” says Jason.

Both Peggy and Jason emphasise that education is essential if Wexford hopes to drag itself out of its current economic slump.

“More investment is needed in education,” he says. “We need greater development of third level opportunities in Wexford, as of late too many kids are giving up and as a result, they slip into a hole that is very difficult to escape from.”

“Back to Education has helped enormously. The variety of training across the sector has grown so much and the accessibility to it has been lessened to where all can choose a subject that they have an interest in and then advance to their preferred level to help obtain work,” says Peggy.

Providing young, troubled students with advice can be daunting, often an upsetting experience for Peggy. Detailing her daily experiences, Peggy recalls the incessant explanations, in which has led to the high levels of second and third level education dropouts.

“So many drop out of 2nd and 3rd level because they did not look into the course fully the idea of the title of a course then the expectations that are required to maintain the quality of work to keep going are often too much, I find it terribly sad seeing their potential being wasted.

“We would get a lot of ‘it's not what I expected’ or ‘the course work is too hard’ it could be a load of things, but mostly the outline of a course seems great but the expectations of work are an oversight,” she says

Neither representatives could reveal a definitive age demographic for those who contact their respected associations; the taxing pressures of unemployment can hit anyone and anytime.

“We have no set age bracket. Everyday people access our service from the age of 18 to 90. To say one age group would not (do) justice to the demographic of people who choose to use the service,” says Peggy.

Speaking about the same topic Jason says: “There is a broad demographic throughout Tús as the Dept. of Social Protection generate random lists of long-term unemployed to send to me for assessment and interview.”

Philip Bradley, a Wexford local, who has struggled to find a stable, full-time job for the past two years, speaks out about the tribulations of being unemployed.

"Living in a small town like Wexford is the first obstacle you have to get around when you’re looking for work …The more successful shops and factories in the town have been around for years, and their employees have been there since the beginning, so they aren’t going to hire me or anyone else for that matter.

"And, when you do find some work, it’s usually helping your mate out for the day or a new start-up business that doesn’t even last a month before it shuts down … there you are, standing outside the dole office, yet again. It's demeaning being on it [social welfare] for so long, especially when you’re on first name basis with everyone inside the office,” says Philip.

When asked about which incentives she would like to see the Government implement, Peggy immediately has an answer:

“The Government should think of bringing back the back to work allowance for people who are trying to work from the live register, when they did away with this they also did away with a lot of people’s interest in even trying to get off the live register,” says Peggy.

The County Council, by extension the state, should focus on developing, and utilising the great access they have in Rosslare Port, something that has gone sorely unnoticed.

“We need to develop Rosslare port for one and make entice investors to the area. Developing a university in the area may supply well educated young people for the workforce.

"There has been very little investment in real employment in the area. It’s somewhat baffling as Wexford has a great location with access to the UK and Europe," Jason says.