Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Losing one's job is like having a bereavement. The impact can be as devastating and yet the individual is expected to carry on as normal even when the times we live in are anything but normal. The global and national economic crisis means that those in work are fearful for their future and those out of work have nowhere to turn. The Labour Party has tabled this motion in support of the thousands of people who find themselves unnerved, undermined and unemployed.

It is disturbing that the Government response is so inadequate. The commitment to ensuring the dignity of jobseekers rings particularly hollow. Even at the simplest level people who lose their jobs end up waiting, often for weeks, to have their applications processed. That delay can lead to added hardship because a local authority may not process a reduction in rent, for example, until the claim is processed.

That is not to be taken as any criticism of the staff in social welfare offices who are valiantly trying to keep up with the tsunami of applications. In one unemployment office with which I am familiar the transformation has been shocking. In August 2007 there were 1,768 people on the live register in Bray and there were approximately 20 staff. In March 2009 there are now 4,308 people on the live register and an additional 1,300 lone parents claims are dealt with in the local office, which used to be dealt with centrally. That means that in 17 months we have seen a 214% increase in activity with only a 35% increase in staffing. While new people arrive there is a massive backlog of approximately 1,000 unemployment claims to tackle.

Each one of those statistics is a person with a family affected and often with dependants to support. They are young and old, women and men, professional, unskilled and semi-skilled. On average, each one costs the State at least €20,000 to support. Tinkering around with FÁS training initiatives is not enough. Every organ of the State should be directed towards job retention and creation. State funding needs to be directed strategically to keep people at work. Every local authority should be involved in carrying out a building programme including improvements for elderly and disabled people, and in building social housing. There should be a countrywide, comprehensive, energy efficiency retrofitting scheme. In previous recessions Labour Party Ministers had a good record of major council house building. Now we have an even more skilled and experienced cohort of construction workers willing and able to work and they are spending their time in line outside their dole office instead of on-site and building for the people.

Every project in the national development plan should be subject to a rigorous assessment both for its capability to keep people at work and for its value in national terms to the economy. For example, will the building of the metro ensure the jobs we want and the infrastructural benefit we need? Maybe or maybe not, but we do know ,without any doubt, that investment in educational facilities from primary and even pre-school up to tertiary will bring a return in both jobs and societal value. There is an urgent need for a serious jobs strategy, as Deputy Shortall has sought, but we are still waiting for the Government to come up with one. Why is that the case when the problem is becoming so acute?

See this speech in context