Local TD and Fine Gael Innovation Spokesperson Deirdre Clune commenting on the CSO live register figures for Cork has expressed her concern at the lack of a Government policy to tackle the growing unemployment crisis.

In just 12 months the number of people on the Live Register in Cork has doubled. The CSO figures for Cork (PDF 101KB) show an annual increase of 19,344 from 18,951 to 38,295 between April 2008 and April 2009. This is a massive rise of 102%.

In Carrigaline the number of people on the live register has jumped by 135.8% in the last 12 months to 2070 in April 2009 up from 878 in April 2008.

Cork is one of nine counties in the country that has seen unemployment double in the last 12 months.

We are deep into the unemployment crisis but the Government has failed to provide any plan or strategy. There is a crying need for an innovative recovery plan with a focus on protecting jobs at risk, and creating jobs to reverse the growing unemployment figures. The Government has no such plan and has given no sign of drafting one.

In the absence of any plan of their own Fianna Fáil and Green Ministers, TDs and Senators should look to Fine Gael’s Rebuilding Ireland programme. It focuses on rebuilding core parts of our national infrastructure and generating an €11 billion stimulus plan to kick-start the Irish economy and generate 100,000 jobs over the next four years.

At this stage in a national jobs crisis it would be criminal if effective measures to get the country back to work were ignored by Fianna Fáil and the Greens because they originated from Fine Gael.