Companies ‘should hire’ from ranks of jobless

COMPANIES should put more effort into hiring unemployed people locally rather than engaging in large recruitment drives abroad, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) has said.

INOU general secretary Eric Conroy said many firms were far too quick to seek staff abroad rather than look in unemployment blackspots in Ireland.

“When you go on a push to China you can get people very quickly. It can be quite easy to pull people from half way around the world rather than to interact with disparate people throughout the country,” he said.

Speaking after Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan asked how 100,000 immigrants could find work so easily this year while 150,000 were unemployed, Mr Conroy said immigrants often proved more willing to work. “Young people from overseas are prepared to work all hours and try very hard to impress their employer,” he told RTÉ.

That point was echoed yesterday by Mr Brennan who said he suspected there were people drawing the dole while working on the side. Such suspicions are heightened by the fact that 20% of those on the live register disappear as soon as they are asked to report for an interview with FÁS.

According to the International Labour Organisation 82,000 are unemployed while the Quarterly National Household Survey shows up to 28,000 long- term cases out of work for more than 12 months.