Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach said this was the slowest rate of increase and that it was actually decreasing. It means 21,721 extra men and women signed on the dole. In the first six months of the year, 127,000, that is 1,000 every day, have signed on.

If we are to be straightforward and up-front with the facts, these are the figures that must be recognised, not the seasonally adjusted figures. They refer to people, men and women, who go every week to the social welfare exchanges to sign on. For June, this is 21,712 extra men and women yet the Taoiseach lectured us this morning on seasonally adjusted figures with a Department of Finance response claiming this is the slowest rate of increase. If we are talking about getting out of this national crisis and dealing with it in an air of reality, will the Taoiseach accept it is 21,712 more people unemployed, an increase of 1,000 people every day?

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