TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen has accepted the number of people out of work will pass the half million mark by the end of the year and could rise even higher next year.
Mr Cowen told the Dáil yesterday the seasonally-adjusted figure for the number of people on the Live Register had risen to 413,500 in June, an increase of 11,400 on May and an increase of 197,781 over 12 months.
The Taoiseach pointed out, however, that the rate of increase was slowing down. “It is the slowest rate of increase since January,” he said.
“One takes no pleasure whatever in anyone losing his or her job, but it is important to point out the trend,” added Mr Cowen.
The Taoiseach accepted by the end of the year unemployment will be in the region of 15 per cent or 15.5 per cent, or 500,000 people, and could rise again in 2010.
“It is clear from the strategies outlined and the models that have been projected for Ireland’s economy based on the current world situation that unemployment will continue to rise, unfortunately, before things get better,” he said.
The figures were described as “the darkest day of the worst recession in living memory,” by Fine Gael enterprise spokesman, Leo Varadkar.
“Only Spain has higher unemployment. This is further evidence that Ireland is experiencing a much deeper recession than any other country. This is due to a decade of gross economic mismanagement under Fianna Fáil,” he said.
He claimed the IMF had pointed the finger of blame directly at Brian Cowen by describing Ireland as “the most overheated of all advanced economies” as well as the most expensive location in the euro zone.
Labour Party spokesman on enterprise and employment, Willie Penrose, said the figures made it clear unemployment was becoming a runaway train that threatened to destroy any prospect of economic recovery.
“The numbers have increased by 264,000 since the general election and by 217,336 since Brian Cowen was elected Taoiseach. That represents a loss of around 520 jobs for every day that the Taoiseach has held office. Has any taoiseach or Government ever had such a dismal record on unemployment?” he asked.
He said the cost in terms of lost tax revenue and additional social welfare of the 200,000 people who had been added to the Live Register in the last year amounted to about €4 billion.
“This is close to the €5 billion that the McCarthy Group has been asked to identify in cuts in public expenditure,” he said.
Sinn Féin finance spokesman Arthur Morgan accused the Government of delaying the action needed to get the country back to work.
“Today’s Live Register figures are extremely worrying. Not only do they highlight the grave crisis facing this country, but they also exemplify the ignorance of the Government in taking positive action to stem the haemorrhaging of jobs and creating new employment opportunities,” he said.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, David Begg said the Government needed to “get their heads around this idea that unemployment is a mega crisis, and that it as big as banking in social terms as banking is in financial terms”.
Economists suggested yesterday the pace of job losses may have peaked in January, when the Live Register swelled by 33,000 people.
Ulster Bank economist Lynsey Clemenger said the smaller 11,400 rise in June was a “welcome positive surprise”, representing further improvement compared to the 13,500 rise in claimants in May.
Economist Brendan Walsh drew attention to the rate at which the increase in the seasonally-adjusted unemployment numbers was falling.
Meanwhile, the global downturn appeared close to a bottom yesterday after manufacturing figures from across the world suggested the worldwide recession was running out of steam in all big economies. There was also some positive news on Irish manufacturing, with the rate of decline in Irish manufacturing easing to a nine-month low.