Kenny urges jobs stimulus measures

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny has called on the Government to implement three jobs stimulus measures that he said would take thousands of unemployed people off the Live Register.

His call came as unemployment figures for October showed a reduction of 12,800 on the previous month or 6,600 on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen told the Dáil the reduction was “much higher” than normal in October. “It’s the second highest fall ever for the month of October.”

Mr Cowen indicated in advance of the formal announcement by the Central Statistics Office, on the basis of Department of Social Protection figures, that the unemployment rate would be 13.6 per cent, with 429,550 people out of work.

Mr Kenny said the Taoiseach had regularly castigated the Opposition parties’ job creation proposals, but there were three proposals which “would have a direct impact on employment and growth”. He urged Mr Cowen to call in Aer Lingus and Ryanair and tell them he would abolish the €10 travel tax if they met a targeted increase in passenger and tourist numbers, which Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary had claimed he could do. The tax nets the exchequer approximately €120 million in a full year.

He also called for the introduction of a work-share programme that would take 10,000 people off the Live Register in the short term. “No real attempt has been made by the Government to do this.”

He added that the 80,000 small firms in the State employed 800,000 and each firm could take on an extra person if Mr Cowen reduced employers’ PRSI. “These people could then be paid the social welfare they receive and together with the removal of those obstacles this would have a direct impact on the Live Register in the short term.”

Mr Cowen said there was evidence the labour market was stabilising and October exchequer figures reinforced this because the tax take was “slightly ahead of expectations”.