Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)

In light of the figures published this morning by the Central Statistics Office on unemployment, does the Minister accept that the real number of unemployed people probably is close to or in excess of 500,000? For example, one should consider those who were forced into being sole traders, particularly in the construction sector, in order that their then employers would not be obliged to pay PRSI and who therefore are not entitled to jobseeker's benefit or assistance. Second, one should consider those unemployed people who were entitled to jobseeker's benefit for 12 months because they possessed the requisite stamps. Thereafter, another income coming into the affected household would disqualify that person from an entitlement to jobseeker's assistance. Therefore such people may not be registered as many people do not feel obliged to register when not in receipt of a payment from the State. Does the Minister appreciate the huge number of people involved, which I estimate to be in excess of 500,000 rather than the published figure of 436,000? This is the scale of the crisis facing us.

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