Published: Friday, 11th June, 2010 3:31pm

Tullamore worst affected by Live Register figures

The number of people signing on the Live Register in Tullamore accounts for almost half the total in Offaly.

According to the latest figures published for May by the CSO, there are now 3,958 men and women signing on in Tullamore, compared to 2,316 in Birr and 2,337 in Edenderry.

Overall in the county, there was a year on year increase of 12.1% and an increase of 226 people signing on in May compared to April of this year.

In total there were 8,611 people signing on in the three centres around Offaly last month; 5,784 of those were men and 2,8327 were women. The majority of those signing on are men over the age of 25, at 4,618. In all three towns, there are more men than women signing on and the figures have increased since April.

Labour Tullamore Town Cllr Sean O'Brien said that Tullamore has become an unemployment blackspot under the Fianna Fail/Green Government.

"For young people the situation is very bad. There are 875 males under 25 years old in Tullamore on the live register; this is a staggering 48% of the county total. Clearly young people leaving school, college or training courses simply cannot find work and face a very uncertain future," said Cllr O'Brien.

"The increase of over 5,000 since April gives the lie to Government claims that we have turned the corner. The reasons for this are clear: this Government has run out of ideas and has run out of steam. While they are perfectly happy to pump billion after billion into zombie banks, they are doing virtually nothing invest in job creation."

Cllr O'Brien also said that the PRSI incentive scheme for employers, which was supposed to facilitate the creation of some 12,000 new jobs and reduce the numbers on the dole queues has still to be implemented, five months after it was announced.