Press Release - Local Young People Facing Life-Long Jobs Crisis - Looney

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate for this year’s local election in Tallaght Central, has said that the most recent live register figures for the area highlight a potential “life-long jobs crisis” which will be felt hardest by young people. Looney’s comments come in the wake of March’s live register figures which show a record 8,233 people out of work in Tallaght – with a quarter of those aged under 25.

The 26 year-old Labour candidate, who is based in Greenhills and works in Tallaght, has been highlighting youth unemployment as a campaign issue for many months and has said that measures in April’s budget are a double-whammy for young unemployed people.

March’s live register figures show an extra 259 people signing on at the Tallaght Social Welfare Office, 83 of whom were under 25.

In just 12 months there has been a staggering increase of 3777, or 85%, in the total numbers signing on in Tallaght. The youth rate shows an increase of 947, also 85% up on the figures since last March.

However, Looney has said that the Tallaght office shows a much higher rate of youth unemployment than the remainder of the country.

“Nationally, 21% of those out of work are under 25,” said Looney. “But in Tallaght, this rises to 25%.”

“When broken down by gender, we can see that young women in Tallaght are being hit even harder. Locally, women under 25 make up more than 29% of the total amount of women signing on – much higher than the 22.5% nationally. With hits in childcare and other budget measures, young women are being targeted particularly unfairly.”

Looney also highlighted the sad increases at the Bishop Square Welfare Office, used by people in the Dublin 12 and 6w parts of the Tallaght Central ward. Here, the number of those signing on increased by almost 500 from February to March. Incredibly, there has been a jump in those signing on at Bishop Square in the last 12 months of 95.4%.

“The numbers of young people out of work in our community are truly depressing, but talking to local people and hearing their stories makes the current crisis really hit home,” said Looney. “On the doorsteps, I have talked to countless young people and their families who are most at risk, hearing heartbreaking stories of despair. Even emigration is not an option for many young workers given the global jobs crisis.”

“It is scarcely believable that under 20’s are being slaughtered with a halving of their jobseekers allowance – with barely any schemes to encourage them back either to employment or education. As the youngest candidate in the county, my solidarity lies strongly with those young people; refusing to intervene at this stage will mean a life-long jobs crisis for thousands of local young people.”

“I will continue the campaign for better employment and education opportunity for all people, especially the young. Labour’s proposals for an earn and learn scheme, and our support for increases in Community Employment schemes, are the very ideas that will bring us out of this mess – not the same old policies from Fianna Fáil and their cronies which have brought us this crisis.”

Press Release - Looney Demands Action as Tallaght Youth Unemployment Has Biggest Ever Rise

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate for this year’s local election in Tallaght Central, has said that February’s live register figures display the biggest rise in youth unemployment in the Tallaght area in memory. Looney has slammed government inaction on the jobs crisis, saying that there have been no proposals or plans of any significance to curb the rise in youth unemployment, or to get people of any age back to work.

His comments come as the CSO’s live register figures show 7,974 signing on at the Tallaght Social Welfare Office – a jump of 713, or 10%, in the month of February.

Looney, who is based in Greenhills and works in Tallaght, noted that one of the most worrying figures was the youth unemployment rate, which has been spiralling in recent months.

Of the 7,974 out of work, a quarter – 1,974 – are under 25. Youth unemployment in Tallaght has jumped by an extraordinary 46% in the last four months, with February’s rise of 207, or more than 11%, the biggest rise on record. There is also a big gap in the proportion of under 25’s out of work in Tallaght – 25% - and the national figure of 21%.

Looney also noted the overall increase at the Bishop’s Square Welfare Office, used by people in the Dublin 12 and 6w parts of the Tallaght Central ward, which saw the number of those signing on increase from 6,342 in January to 6,916 in February – a jump of 574. There has an increase in those signing on in the last 12 months of almost 93%.

“Working people are the true victims of this crisis,” said Looney, “while the 33,000 millionaires and the undisclosed tax dodgers are hit very lightly indeed – if at all. There is a crisis both in the morality of a system which is punishing the most vulnerable the hardest, and in the policy vacuum at the heart of Government.”

“On the doorsteps, I have talked to countless young people and their families who are most at risk, hearing heartbreaking stories of despair. Even emigration is not an option for many young workers given the global jobs crisis. It is clear at this stage that we need action at three levels – local, national and international.”

“Internationally, my Labour colleague Proinsias de Rossa has proposed that we use the €14 billion in the European Social Fund for youth retraining, education and increasing mobility between sectors and access to the labour market for young people. Nationally, we need to implement new welfare to work initiatives and active labour market programmes as a matter of urgency, supported by decent provision of childcare and education places.”

“Locally, the INOU's call for an early warning system for redundancies will provide the time to attract other investment or retrain workers before they lose their jobs. Community Employment schemes, particularly for the long-term unemployed, must be maintained and developed, and talk of prioritising the high-tech sector can’t be allowed to exacerbate social exclusion in working class communities - meaning that no further cutbacks at any level of education are acceptable."

Press Release - Recent Youth Unemployment Trends Most Worrying of All - Looney

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate for this year’s local election in Tallaght Central, has blamed government inaction for spiralling unemployment figures, calling for measures targeting young workers and young unemployed people to be implemented immediately. His comments came as national live register figures showed 327,861 people signing on in January 2009, with local figures just as worrying.

Looney, who is based in Greenhills and works in Tallaght, noted that at the Tallaght Social Welfare Office, the signing on centre for people from Dublin 24, an unprecedented 7,261 signed on for jobseekers allowance and benefit in January. This was 745 higher than in December, yet again marking the biggest monthly increase in unemployment in Tallaght this decade. Extraordinarily, there has been an increase in the Tallaght office alone of over 3,000 in the last year.

Looney highlighted the increasing youth unemployment rate as a cause for particular concern. There were 1,767 under 25’s signing on in Tallaght in January – an increase of 171 in just a month.

Looney also noted the increase at the Bishop’s Square Welfare Office, used by people in the Dublin 12 and 6w parts of the ward, which saw the number of those signing on increase from 5,652 in December to 6,342 in January – a jump of 690. The figures for this office are almost 3,000 up from January 2008.

“The current employment crisis is threatening any social gains made across this area in recent years,” noted Looney, “and will hit working-class communities the hardest. I have talked to countless young people and their families who are most at risk, hearing heartbreaking stories of despair. Even emigration is not an option for many young workers given the global jobs crisis. ”

“Nobody needs reminding that during the 1980’s more than one in four young people were on the dole, that many had to emigrate, and that this part of Dublin became an economic blackspot. Now that those days have returned it’s time for urgent policies which stem the flow. Labour’s proposals for an economic stimulus package would put thousands of construction workers back to work on vital national projects such as a nationwide school buildings programme and environmental retrofitting schemes.”

"We should use the €14 billion in the European Social Fund for youth retraining, education and increasing mobility between sectors and access to the labour market for young people. Here at home, we need to implement new welfare to work initiatives and active labour market programmes as a matter of urgency, supported by decent provision of childcare and education places."

"For more established and older workers, the INOU's call for an early warning system for redundancies will provide the time to attract other investment or retrain workers before they lose their jobs. Community Employment schemes, particularly for the long-term unemployed, must be maintained and developed, and talk of prioritising the high-tech sector can’t be allowed to exacerbate social exclusion in working class communities - meaning that no further cutbacks at any level of education are acceptable."

Unemployment Figures

I've done a lot of analysis lately of local unemployment figures and it makes for some of the most depressing work I've had to do in this campaign. As some of you will know, I did a degree in Social Policy in UCD and have studied all the major texts on unemployment, increasing labour market access, active labour market programmes, etc. But to know that there is a personal story behind each number - a family who've lost their breadwinner, an early school-leaver now listless, an older worker facing the prospect of never being employed again - gives an emotive and heart-rendering bent to the stats that goes beyond the data.

I put out a shortened press release on this yesterday - it's available here. But when I was doing it up I ended up with too much information for a standard press release. The papers just wouldn't pick it up. So here it is in all it's glory. It forms the basis of my policy on unemployment and the analysis which will inform me as a Councillor.

Dermot Looney, the Labour Party candidate for this year’s local election in Tallaght Central, has called for the strong-arming of youth employment initiatives in light of the latest local increase in local unemployment figures. The release of live register statistics for December saw the national unemployment level creep up towards the 300,000 mark, the highest figure since 1993.

Looney noted that the current employment crisis is threatening the social gains made across South West Dublin in recent years, and will hit working-class communities the hardest.

At the Tallaght Social Welfare Office, the signing on centre for people across the local community, an unprecedented 6,516 signed on for jobseekers allowance and benefit in December. This was 561 higher than in November, which is the biggest monthly increase in unemployment in Tallaght this decade. Extraordinarily, there has been an increase in the Tallaght office alone of more than 2,500 in just 12 months, due in part to the closure of major companies such as Jacobs (February), Microprint (March) and Tesco’s (April).

Looney highlighted the increasing youth unemployment rate as a cause for particular concern. Youth unemployment is defined internationally as those under the age of 25 who are active in the labour force but without a job. There are 1,596 under 25’s signing on in Tallaght in December – a jump of 160 in just a month, and an increase of more than 2/3 on the figure just 12 months before.

“The CSO’s most recent statistics on the proportion of young people out of work, last August’s Quarterly National Household Survey, showed a national youth unemployment rate of 16%,” said Looney.

“A more recent European study showing a youth unemployment rate of 17.7% in Ireland. Given the huge jump in general unemployment since then, it is likely that this rate is now approaching, or indeed beyond, 20% - meaning more than one in five young people who are looking for work can’t get it.”

“Nobody needs reminding that during the 1980’s more than one in four young people were on the dole, that many had to emigrate, and that this part of Dublin became an economic blackspot. Now that those days have returned it’s time for urgent policies which stem the flow.”

“My Labour colleague Proinsias de Rossa has proposed a Europe-wide Youth Employment Pact by using the €14 billion in the European Social Fund for youth retraining, education and increasing mobility between sectors and access to the labour market for young people. Here at home, we need to implement as a matter of urgency the ”

“For more established and older workers, the INOU’s call for an early warning system for redundancies will provide the time to attract other investment or retrain workers before they lose their jobs. Welfare to work initiatives and active labour market programmes must be supported by decent provision of childcare and education places, and Community Employment schemes, particularly for the long-term unemployed, must be maintained. The much-vaunted Government talk about prioritising high-tech cannot be allowed to exacerbate social exclusion in working class communities, meaning that no further cutbacks at any level of education are acceptable.”

“What makes matters worse is that these figures coincide with the introduction of new restrictions to Jobseeker's Benefit as a result of the October Budget. Anyone qualifying for Jobseekers' Benefit will receive payment for three months less than before the Budget cutbacks. In some cases, depending on credits, this will mean a maximum duration of 9 months on the benefit and in others it will mean 12 months. It will also mean that less people will now meet the criteria for Back to Education Allowance and for Community Employment schemes because qualification depends on the length of time a person is receiving a social welfare payment. These qualification periods affect young and temporary workers and their families hardest, and this supposed ‘unintended consequence’ of the Budget, which is already causing great pain for those struggling hardest, should be reversed by the Minister for Social & Family Affairs.”

Press Release - Local Unemployed Abandoned by Heartless Government - Labour candidate Looney

Labour Party local election candidate Dermot Looney has said that the government has abandoned unemployed people and those in danger of losing their jobs with the latest local Live Register figures making for grim reading.

Figures made available to Looney from local Labour TD Pat Rabbitte show that the numbers signing on in Tallaght have jumped by almost 2,000 in the last 18 months, with 5,526 unemployed in October 2008 compared with 5,577 in May 2007 - a 54.5% increase. Nationally, there are now more than a quarter of a million people unemployed, including more than 100,000 newly signing on in the last 12 months.

Looney, who is standing in the Tallaght Central Ward which covers Greenhills, Templeogue and much of Dublin 24, noted that "not one positive measure to curb unemployment or to assist those out of work was presented in the recent budget. Scandalously, the only action brought forward by the Government was to actually make it more difficult to qualify for jobseekers allowance and restrict the period over which it is paid."

"Labour has proposed a series of measures to combat the unemployment problem that have been totally ignored by the Government. In terms of the thousands of workers involved in construction we have proposed a major school building programme to take 40,000 children out of pre-fabs and put them into proper classrooms. We have also put forward a national insulation scheme to make our housing stock more energy efficient, reducing carbon emissions and reducing household fuel bills as well as allowing people to work. We want to see more and better retraining initiatives across the sectors and to ensure a jobs policy and an economy which meet the needs of society - not the other way around."

"Yet again, the Government have shown a nasty, uncaring attitude to working class communities and those who are most vulnerable in our society. For Tallaght Central, now's the time for a real alternative," Looney concluded.

ENDS