asked the Taoiseach the most recent available figures for unemployment in the building and construction industry, with the corresponding figure for mid-July 1977.
Ceisteanna—Questions . Oral Answers . - Building and Construction Industry .
1.
: The latest date for which the industrial analysis of the live register is available is 16 March 1978. The total number of persons in the building, contracting and works of construction industry who were on the live register on 16 March 1978 was 24,040 while the corresponding figure on 15 July 1977 was 23,993.
: Would the Minister agree that those figures disclose that eight months after the Government assumed office there were still more people unemployed than when they arrived in office?
: No, I would not. The Deputy continues to refuse to look at life and to compare like with like. The figures establish that on 16 March of this year there were 1,500 fewer registered unemployed in the building and construction industry than on 18 March of last year.
: Does the Minister not accept that the reason why this question is repeatedly put down is that claims are being made not in regard to year-upon-year improvement but in regard to the creation of 3,500 jobs in the building industry? So, far from improvement being the case, there were more people at work in that industry in the middle of July 1977, than in the middle of March 1978. Even if I am wrong in putting it like that the Minister will still agree that there is a queer difference between the 1,500 year-on-year improvement and the 3,500 we have been hearing about.
: The Deputy still insists on non-acceptance of the fact that the live register is not a true indication of the volume of people not working who are available for employment.
: Would the Minister not——
: We cannot let this develop into an argument. I am calling Question No. 2.
: Would the Minister not accept that if jobs are created in the building industry within a certain number of months in which a Government are in office in any period, it is going to show up on the live register? Why are these fairy jobs not showing up on the live register?
: Later in the year when the figures for jobs this year are available the Deputy can ask this question.
: I ask for these figures every month and each time I get the same answer.
: We will have something on which to compare like with like.
: Would the Minister consider that, in spite of the claims made some months ago by his party about all the extra jobs which could be found —Deputy Kelly referred to 3,500 whereas 5,000 was the figure most commonly used—those jobs have not materialised? Is it not a fact that, far from improving, employment in the building industry is going the other way?
: Tens of thousands of jobs are waiting to be created.
: That is not so.
(Interruptions.)
: The Minister has expressed dissatisfaction with the live register as a means——
: I did not.
: He said it was inaccurate and blamed it for the discrepancy between 1,500 and 3,500.
: No, it is Deputy Kelly who is creating the figures.
: No one is creating the jobs.
: Jobs for leprechauns.
(Interruptions.)
: If the Minister blames the live register for the discrepancy between 1,500 and 3,500 what format does he use for reaching 3,500 extra employed?
: I did not introduce the figure of 3,500. What I said was that the number of people on the live register on 16 March of this year at 24,040 was over 1,500 less than the number who were registered as unemployed in that industry on 18 March 1977. That is comparing like with like.
: Would the Minister not accept that last March——
: I am calling Question No. 2.