February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
Unemployment in the Republic raced a new milestone last month, a 13-year high with 413,500 people, or 11.9 percent signing on for the dole.
The new total is a rise of 197,700 on the same month last year.
And the level is expected to continue rising. Taoiseach Brian Cowen has acknowledged that the unemployment level could end up exceeding a widely predicted 15.5 percent by the end of 2010.
Some are of the view that it could end up topping 17 percent.
Either way, the level is extraordinary high right now.
One Irish newspaper last week carried a photograph of a line of people stretching out of a welfare office to the street, and around a corner to another street.
It was a scene reminiscent of the worst years of the 1980s.
The lengthening welfare lines will be a severe drain on hard pressed public finances but it’s welfare recipients who could end up even more hard pressed if the government implements a series of welfare payments cuts recommended by the government’s Expenditure Review Committee.
All social welfare payments, including pensions and disability benefits, should be cut, according to the three-strong committee, better known as An Bord Snip Nua.
The committee is proposing up to