Dole figures - Welcome fall hides the real tragedy

WE can take little solace from yesterday’s announcement that the number of people on the dole has fallen for the second month in a row.

On the face of it, the February Live Register figures from the Central Statistics Office may appear positive but the stark reality is that they contain a social time bomb of potentially catastrophic proportions.

At the heart of this crisis is a cancer of long-term unemployment on a scale this country has never seen before, caused by an economic calamity which is also fuelling a reluctant exodus of many of our brightest and best. Young people are leaving Ireland in droves to seek work in Britain, Australia, Canada, Germany and other countries around the globe. It is a dual tragedy because while long-term unemployed fear they may never work again, thousands of young emigrants know they will never return to our shores.

Of course it is welcome news that the Live Register has fallen by 10,000 on a seasonally adjusted basis since its peak in August/September last year. Ominously, however, what the figures also reveal is a frightening 52% surge in the levels of long-term unemployment over the past year.

Behind the raw statistics, the reality is that 56,080 more people have been consigned to the nightmare of long-term unemployment, a devastating experience for both the victims and their families, and a traumatic personal eventuality which undermines self-respect, sowing the seeds of hopelessness and depression with all that implies for the health and welfare of the Irish people.

Radical thinking is called for if this malaise is to be cured. In the past, when a major industry closed down, a task force was inevitably cobbled together by the government of the day with the avowed objective of finding jobs for redundant workers. However, the popular perception was of a strategy more akin to a public relations exercise designed to deflect criticism and public anger from whatever political party and minister were in power at the time.

In the current scenario, what we need is a more honest approach and a greater sense of realism in tackling a problem that is clearly not going to go away.

There are no easy solutions to this crisis. A task force may well form part of the answer but it must be informed by more than party political posturing and window dressing.

Ideally, it should be international in scope, made up of the best minds that can be recruited, embracing both left and right and reflecting different viewpoints on how to get the country back to work. The issues must be debated properly and tangible plans drawn up swiftly to address this national emergency.

Everybody deserves the respect of being given an opportunity to work and if there was one clear message throughout the election it was that people want to get Ireland back working. To be sure, they also want change of government and radical reform of a devalued political system that is not fit for purpose and perceived as a vehicle for private gain instead of public service.

All the change in the world will count for little if the incoming government fails to bring a genuine sense of urgency and realism to the challenge of creating jobs capable of maintaining people in long-term employment, thus restoring a sense of dignity and self-esteem in Irish society once more.