THE Live Register may underestimate the number of unemployed in the Republic by as much as 100,000, according to a new report by the Employment Equality Agency.
Those not included on the register are women, who according to the agency may want to return to the workforce and are entitled to sign on. But they haven not done so because the present social welfare system discourages them.
Later today the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed and the National Women's Council of Ireland will launch a campaign urging women in the home to sign on the Live Register. A National Signing On Day for Women is to be declared for December 13th.
The new EEA report, entitled "Pathways to Employment for Women Returning to Paid Work", says the present system discriminates against women in the home who would like to reenter the labour force.
The vast majority of these women are classified as adult dependants and, as such, are disqualified from access to many schemes targeted at the unemployed, such as the community employment schemes run by FAS.
The report calls for the broadening of criteria for participation in employment schemes and training opportunities to include people in receipt of the adult dependant allowance, deserted wives, those signing on for credits but not in receipt of any payments, and anyone who has completed a FAS Return to Work course.
It is estimated that this change would give an additional 85,000 to 100,000 women the option of re entering the labour market, and enable them to avail of their legal right to equal access to jobs opportunities. The EEA has called on the Government to start an information campaign affecting women to the long term benefits of remaining on the Live Register.
Last night the chief executive of the EEA, Ms Carmel Foley, said: "Under the present rule of Irish parents who take time out from work to rear their kids are rewarded by making it impossible, for many of them to get back into paid work. Instead of penalising mothers in this way, they should be helped back into work when, they feel ready to do so.
If women do sign on in large numbers it will have no significant financial impact on the social welfare system. If they opt for unemployment assistance in their own right, the amount currently paid to their spouse will simply be halved.
However, by signing on they will not only gain access to FAS schemes but become eligible for contributory old age pensions in their own right and possibly some additional means tested benefits.
The results of the EEA survey add new fuel to the debate about the true level of unemployment in the Republic.
A FAS spokesman, Mr Greg Craig, said the State training, agency had been trying to make schemes more accessible to women. During 1995, more than, 35,000 women completed a FAS, programme, compared with 17,300 in 1990.