Call for increased benefits after black year for jobs
With 24,969 losing their jobs in 2004, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed called on the Government to reintroduce a pay-related benefits scheme.
Eric Conroy, INOU general secretary, claimed welfare payments needed to be increased to match the contributions made by workers during their careers.
“Redundancy can have a devastating impact both on the individual and their family. The loss of a job and the consequential reduction in income can be traumatic,” he said.
“Individuals who lose their job often mistakenly believe that social welfare unemployment payments are pay-related.”
Mr Conroy said a sense of complacency had crept into Irish society with themisconception that there is a job for everyone.
He said manufacturing firms had been haemorrhaging jobs for the past four years.
The latest figures from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment were just a few hundred short of the 20-year high of 25,874 recorded in 2003.
These figures compared to losses of 10,733 in 2000 and 16,668 in 2001.
The current personal rate of unemployment benefit is €148.80 per week. Mr Conroy said people who found themselves unemployed would be surprised to see the large contributions they had made down the years not matched by benefits.
He also warned the redundancy statistics often did not recognise the actual level of job losses the State had suffered.
“These figures do not include employees with less than two years eligible service with an employer, employees who are under 16 years of age or who have reached the qualifying age for a pension. Therefore the figures do not give a true reflection of the scale of job losses.”
