FIANNA FÁIL’S ANNUAL PARLIAMENTARY party meeting will be focusing on job creation and preservation this year, according to the government chief whip John Curran.

The party is holding this year’s meeting in Galway today and tomorrow.

“Each member of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party has seen firsthand the impact the recession of the last two years has had on families and communities in their own constituency,” Curran said. “Securing and creating jobs is the key issue now facing the government.”

The number of professionals signing on to the Live Register last month rose by 27%. Overall unemployment rose from 425,500 in July to 455,000 in August, with women accounting for most of the increase, bringing the standardised unemployment rate to 13.8% for the month.

Fianna Fáil’s meeting is being held ahead of the new Dáil session which gets underway at the end of this month. The final cost of Anglo Irish Bank is also on the agenda, and NAMA’s chairman Frank Daly will make a presentation.

Curran says that the ESRI’s Prof Philip O’Connell, John Trethowan from the Credit Review Office, and Cliff Taylor from the Sunday Business Post will also be speaking at the event.