THE HIGHEST live register total for almost two years has prompted demands that this month's Budget should include special measures to reduce longterm unemployment.
The December total of 285,100. published yesterday, shows a rise of 5,000 from the same date last year and is the highest since March 1994. The live register is up 10,400 on the November total. with the seasonally adjusted increase being 2,900. Over half of those registered are long term unemployed.
As trade union and Opposition figures called for radical Government action. the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Richard Bruton, said there would be initiatives to deal with long term unemployment in the Budget. New schemes and reform of existing ones were likely, and more funding than allocated in the Estimates may be made available in the January 23rd Budget.
A Government source also said "most items in the Budget will be approached in the context of how they will affect long term unemployment".
The figures will disappoint the Government as they come after a period of "good news" economic announcements. But despite high economic growth and job creation figures, the live register figure remains stubbornly high.
The ICTU general secretary. Mr Peter Cassells. yesterday called for special measures in the Budget to tackle long term unemployment in urban areas. Such areas should be designated as IDA priority areas, and a special reduced PRSI rate should be introduced for those employing people from these areas.
Fianna Fail's deputy leader, Ms Mary O'Rourke, called for a series of sustained, directed and monitored interventions to address long term unemployment. Compared with this time last year, the unemployment figures have increased by over 5,000, while the number of long term unemployed has remained static over the last year." she said.
The Government spending Estimates provided only £6 million for a Local Employment Service, yet this was the only service that could make inroads into the numbers of long term unemployed. she said.
"The Government promised to have an average unemployment rate this year of 266,000. Instead, the Government has ended the year with an average unemployment total of 278,000, some 12,000 off target."
A Democratic Left deputy, Ms Kathleen Lynch, said that any room to manoeuvre provided by the end of year Exchequer returns must be used to target resources and job creation measures at urban unemployment blackspots in the forthcoming Budget.
The Progressive Democrat Finance spokesman, Mr Michael McDowell, called for radical tax reform to reduce the numbers on the live register.
"In a country which taxes ordinary workers at the highest initial rates in the OECD, and in which many people are better off unemployed, something is radically wrong," he said.