andMr. McQuillan asked the Taoiseach if he will give the unemployment figure during the week ended 2nd February 1963, expressed as a percentage of the working population.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Figure.
8.
The total number of persons on the Live Register at 2 February, 1963 was 70,030. The percentage unemployed is calculated by relating the number of currently insured persons on the Live Register, excluding those in agriculture, fishing and private domestic service, to the estimated corresponding currently insured population. The data from which the percentage figures are calculated are collected only for a midmonth date and the provisional figure for 19 January 1963, the latest available date, was 7.7 per cent. It will be appreciated that on that date the level of unemployment was affected by adverse weather and by seasonal factors.
Would the Taoiseach not agree that a country which has an unemployment record of 7.7 per cent., with approximately 23,000 people emigrating, is a country which could reasonably be described as an underdeveloped country? The Taoiseach has frequently stated that the record of the Government should be judged by the employment created. If that is so, his record is deplorably bad.
The Deputy will be disappointed to know that our average unemployment rate is not 7.7 per cent. at all and that our emigration is not 23,000.
The Taoiseach would deny anything.
Go off and slander the country again in another article in The Tribune.
(Interruptions.)
You are now being found out. You cannot export them any more.