3-month Dáil break during jobs crisis slated by Mary Lou McDonald

Mary Lou McDonald at the Jim Larkin statue, outside Dublin's GPO

THE Fianna Fáil/Green Party Government has been slated by Sinn Féin for taking a three-month summer break in the middle of an unemployment crisis.

Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald said:

“As ministers prepare to down tools for the next few months, unemployment is sky-rocketing. For most people, the idea of the Dáil going on a break for nearly three months while unemployment continues to soar is unacceptable.

“An extra 5,800 people have joined dole queues in the last month. There are now 444,900 people on the dole.

“There is no strategy to create jobs. This government is now trying to convince people that the economy has turned a corner but economic growth in the absence of jobs is pointless. Despite some newspaper headlines heralding the end of the recession, the reality is that there are now more unemployed today than at any time in the history of the state.

“And with the media distracted by internal government wranglings over stag hunting and dog breeding, the government quietly pushed through legislation cutting social welfare entitlements.

“These cuts will cause real hardship for people who have no confidence of returning to the workforce any day soon given that nothing is being done to create jobs.  Cutting public services and welfare undermines the state’s ability to make an economic recovery.”

Mary Lou McDonald said that it’s time to implement the kind of job creation proposals set out by Sinn Féin over the last couple of years.  We need to invest in job creation and bring forward specific strategies for potential growth sectors of the economy – sectors such as digital media, IT, agri-food, tourism and environmental technologies.

ENDS