ISME: Govt must extend employment subsidies

ISME, the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, has called on the Government to extend the Employment Subsidy Scheme by allowing all small and medium businesses to avail of the support.

The call comes in response to figures confirming that there have been 67,207 redundancies in the year to date, an increase of 110% on the same period last year.

In the ten months to October there have been 27,000 more redundancies than for the whole of 2008.

Figures show that 47% of job losses were in the manufacturing and construction sector with 38% from service businesses.

ISME Chief Executive, Mark Fielding said: “Ironically, as the labour market remains in crisis, the trade unions are threatening economic sabotage by demanding pay increases together with widespread strikes.

"The lunacy and futility of this policy is self evident and will do untold damage to the economy, undermining our international reputation and increasing labour costs, when the exact opposite is required”.

Fielding called on the Government to face down the demands of the trade unions and hold firm on their resolve to reduce public expenditure in line with the recommendations of An Bord Snip.