May Day Statement: Government has Failed the Unemployed
1 May 2010
The Government has ignored the Jobs' Crisis and has failed the 435,000 people currently out of work, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has said.
In a May Day statement, Congress General Secretary David Begg said: "Government inaction and failure has seen the numbers out of work triple and has ensured that long term unemployment and emigration are central features of Irish life, once again.
"This is as drastic an indictment of official policy as it is possible to get, in 2010. The spectre of the 1950s and 1980s now haunts working families all across Ireland.
"The Government is just not working," Mr Begg said.
Congress has taken out May Day advertisements in a number of national print outlets, outlining its position.
Mr Begg said the entire apparatus of Government seemed "uttery transfixed" by the banking crisis, while those who had lost their jobs had seen their benefits cut.
"There appears to be a bottomless pit for the senior bankers that caused this mess - and the jobless are told to wait in line, literally.
"For there to be any sense of justice or of a burden being shared, Government must move with urgency to give the Jobs Crisis equal billing with the banking crisis.
"Even enlightened self interest should tell them that we will not even begin to recover until employment starts to pick up. Claims that we have already exited the recession or have turned the corner are meaningless, until we start getting people back to work," Mr Begg said.
"And it is not as if there is a shortage of ideas out there, a succession of organisations, institutions and individuals have proposed some very innovative responses.
"For our part, Congress has put forward proposals on how we could effectively protect and create jobs. Government did nothing. We have published proposals that could help create tens of thousands of jobs in the Green Tech Sector and also agreed with construction employers a new initiative to allow the billions held in Irish Pension Funds to be invested in key infrastructure projects," Mr Begg concluded.