Unemployment figures - Time for calm

FIGURES that showed that 19,000 people had to join dole queues last month are challenging and tremendously worrying.

This brings the number of people dependent on dole payments to 221,000. This is a 10-year high and will add around €500 million to this year’s welfare bill. It’d be foolish to underestimate the impact this sudden downturn could have on our ability to recreate the conditions that generated such wealth in recent years.

Mistakes were made and opportunities squandered, but our immediate focus must be on what can be done rather than on revisiting a past we can do nothing about. Our economy is still stronger than it ever was before the arrival of the Celtic Tiger.

It’s time for a realistic perspective, and it’s time to remind ourselves what we have achieved and what we can achieve again.