Unemployment rises by 0.9 per cent in Mayo

Unemployment rises by 0.9 per cent in Mayo


Anton McNulty

AS unemployment continues to rise in Mayo, it gave the opposition TD’s an opportunity to take a swipe at the government claiming their ‘lies and spin’ on jobs had been ‘blown away’.
The live register figures for May which were released by the Central Statistics Office revealed that unemployment in Mayo has risen from 12,821 to 12,939 in the last month. The increase of 0.9 per cent is below the national increase for May of 1.2 per cent.
However, the opposition attacked the governments record on job creation and said the lack of a jobs and stimulus package ‘has never looked more damaging for Mayo’. Deputy Michael Ring accused the government of lying about its employment strategy and spinning against the opposition parties.
“The figures for Mayo are now at 12,939; with 118 people joining the dole queues in May. It’s a truly appalling situation, with the national overall unemployment figure now at 13.7 per cent. This is the highest number of unemployed people ever in Irish history with 439,100 now signing on around the country.
“Mayo urgently needs a jobs and competitiveness strategy. Bailing out the banks is not an investment in the future. In the week that €2 billion was poured into Anglo Irish Bank, the Government’s failure to provide a stimulus package for growth looks incredible. We need to invest in the real economy in order to get people back to work. That will clearly never happen under Fianna FΡil and the Greens,” he said.
Achill is the only area office in the county which has less than one thousand people on the dole with 451 but that figure increased from 443 in April. Belmullet and Claremorris were the only areas which saw a decrease in their unemployment figures with Belmullet falling by one person to 1,038 while Claremorris fell from 1,368 to 1,337.