Govt Not Helping Long-Term Unemployed - FF

Fianna Fáil has accused the government of failing to help long-term unemployed, saying that instead of making promises of what will happen in the future, they need to focus on creating jobs now.

Following an announcement by the government that it would create 40,000 jobs this year and deliver full employment by 2018, Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Dara Calleary that "the reality is many of the jobs being created in the economy... are low paid with zero-hour contracts and this is leaving thousands of people still struggling to make ends meet every week."

Deputy Calleary added: "The Government is simply not doing enough to promote indigenous business and support small firms and the self-employed. One main difficulty is the long-term unemployment crisis.

"What we need is a retraining element because a lot of the activation schemes are not leading to jobs for many people who participate. There is no sense in having 87,000 people on an activation schemes in order to massage the figures unless there is certainty of employment at the end of scheme."

(MH/JP)