Taoiseach is engaging in abracadabra economics, wishing away unemployment figures, Gilmore tells Cowen

Posted on February 03, 2010 at 04:08 PM

The latest unemployment figures show almost 440,000 people on the live register with 319 people losing their jobs everyday and despite the message from Fianna Fail that we are turning a corner into economic recovery, there is very little sign of it, the Labour Leader Eamon Gimore TD told the Dáil this morning.

Speaking during Leaders' Questions Eamon added: "The Taoiseach seems to think that he can wish away the number of people who are out of work because of the number of days and so on they are on the live register. If he wants to go into the figures, there are also people who are unemployed but not on the live register because they no longer receive benefits and they are no longer reflected in the figures.

"The reality is the number of people out of work is increasing... When will we see a serious effort by the Government to get a jobs strategy in place, get the economy moving and get people back to work."

Eamon went to explain the many different proposals Labour has tabled which would boost our economy, proposals such as investment in education and training, a jobs fund in the Budget and a new National Development Plan, all of which has been rejected by the Government.

You can see Eamon's full contribution to Leaders' Questions in the video, while the transcript of the exchange will be available on the Oireachtas website. Our Deputy Leader Joan Burton also made a short video last night talking about the latest exchequer figures.

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