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THE NUMBERS on the Live Register fell close to their lowest in two years last month – but when seasonal adjustments are taken into account, the number fell by just 100.
Figures published by the Central Statistics Office show a total of 417,593 people signing on in April.
That figure is the lowest in two years, with the exception of last November, when it was just under 300 lower.
However, when seasonal adjustments are taken in account, the number rises to 426,900 – a mere 100 lower than its figure for March.
In all, Ireland’s unemployment rate remains at 14.0 per cent.
The number of long-term claimants – those who have been signing on for over 12 months – is up slightly over the last year; 44,6 per cent of all claimants have been signing on for over a year now, compared with 42.8 per cent in April 2012.
The number of under-25s signing on is down over the last year, however, falling by 6,447 – as a result either of people finding work, returning to education, or emigrating.
People under 25 now account for 15.6 per cent of all people on the Live Register, having accounted for 16.5 per cent of claimants a year ago, and 18.1 per cent a year before that.
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I think the Westernized definition of “Women’s rights” and “gender equality” are making a mockery of the legitimate struggles women face in the world. In Saudi Arabia women aren’t allowed drive a car. That’s a REAL problem and issue to be addressed. FGM is a REAL issue. Moaning about perceived under-representation in politics/media, and demanding undemocratic measures to appease this perception is a Non-issue. Its Misandry.
Hi Tony – just to point out, the under-representation of women in politics/media is not ‘perceived’, it is a fact.
16 per cent of the Dáil is female. Even if you doubled that, you would still not have gender equality.
Ireland ranks 24th out of the 28 EU member states when it comes to the percentage of female political representation: http://ec.europa.eu/ireland/ireland_in_the_eu/impact_of_eu_on_irish_women/index_en.htm
The vast majority of presenters (80 per cent to 90 per cent) on Irish radio station are male, with women typically on early morning or weekend slots, outside of prime time hours.
Also, here’s Women On Air’s website, in case you missed the link above. They’re not calling for ‘undemocratic measures’, as far as I can see. http://womenonair.ie/what-we-do/
According to women on air 1 in 3 presenters are women and not 80 or 80 %.
Also, equality is about equal opportunity and not equal numbers.
In the Dail for example, women ran as Independents at a rate of 15% in the last election. There is no barrier to anyone running as an independent.
Yet, the main parties ran candidates at closer to 30% (depending on the party). Therefore the main parties are already running women at far higher levels women are putting themselves forward at.
In fact, I would think considering the vast membership of almost any political party is usually male, if anything I’d imagine if research was carried out on that front, we’d find women were dramatically overrepresented as candidates in parties.
Sorry Aoife. I phrased that wrong. I know that women are in a minority in these fields. I was having a go at the idea that these issues are perceived by some as real “feminist” problems that are due to intentional and institutionalised sexism.
And I used the Saudi example to highlight legitimate institutional sexism.
Actually female independents ran at 8% while Labour had 27% female candidates and FF & FG were at 15%. So the major parties are putting women forward at 2-3 times the rate women put themselves forward
But Aoife talks about “representation”. Are we to assume that to represent women you must be a woman? Would you prefer if Sarah Palin was your TD rather than Daniel O’Connell? If you vote for someone because of their sex you’re a sexist, it’s as simple as that. You’re also stupid. Women are fully represented in the Dáil, by the people they vote for
In my own opinion it’s more a quality issue than a quantity one. Bar Miriam O’Callaghan, Mary Wilson and even Claire Byrne, the vast majority of female radio presenters I’ve heard are pretty woeful.
They tend to have this ‘yay sisters’ attitude which turns male listeners off. Most focus on mundane vox pop stuff and tend to shy away from anything serious. True, some of this may be down to the selection choices of the station chiefs but come on, if you constantly choose to recycle people like Ruth Scott, Sile Seoige, Kathryn Thomas etc then you’ll keep getting the same perception.
There are plenty of women out there who can lead serious debate – just go and find them.
When Miriam O’ Callaghan stepped in for John something or other for months last year, almost every guest she had on were women.
Personally, I’d much prefer gender balance in the content of the shows. We can say with absolute certainty mens issues and the social issues and problems facing them are underrepresented moreso than anything on Irish radio.
Iam enjoying listening to Jennifer McGuire on 2fm if truth be told.
I mostly watch women on the internet.
Niall, why do you think male issues aren’t high lighted? Genuine question. There are loads of male djs and hosts that can high light them, why don’t they?
Aoife, they’re not interested in facts or statistics, only in their own prejudices
If I wasn’t interested in statistics I wouldn’t have provided them.
Dell, I know you didn’t address that to me but for what it’s worth….
I think if a male DJ were to highlight “men’s issues” with the frequency that, for example, The Journal highlights “women’s issues” he’d be called a misogynist and ridiculed by people like, for example, Susan Daly, editor of The Journal. (I say this because she’s already part of a group called The Anti Room that do just that). Google “what about teh menz” and see for yourself
Also, I think people just aren’t conditioned to see unemployment, murder, assault, suicide, death at work, imprisonment and all the other issues that disproportionately affect men as “men’s issues”.
Thanks Etienne. Good points. do you think that sometimes the ridicule (and I’m not condoning it!) comes because sometimes men will hilight their issues on the back of an article that are hilighting issues that are predominantly female problems. say fgm, If someone were to write an actual article on say male circumcision, would it be ridiculed? also, and this is what my original question stemmed from, do you think a lit of men do not like their problems being aired or hilighted or are afraid of being ridiculed by other Men? like “man up” or something like that.
We don’t highlight men’s issues because, quite frankly, it is unbecoming and the last thing we want is a male version of feminism.
Well, taking the second part first, and this is just my opinion, I don’t think it’s a factor because if an article addressed a problem that men face as a group then it’d be hard to tell anyone to “man up”. I do think that attitude stops individual men talking about their individual problems though
A bigger issue is that people in general just don’t realise that “men’s issues” exist. There’s no men’s rights industry, compare that to the number of clearly identifiable professional feminists. Look at the hostility the Male Studies course in the University of South Australia faced, frequently from graduates of Women’s Studies courses. That hostility is replicated any time someone opens their mouth about, say, bias in the criminal courts. As soon as you question the feminist narrative you’re called “a misogynist”. And no-one wants that.
Which leads me in to your first point; comments on “Women’s Issues” articles. I’ve often left comments asking for the male side of the story to be told. The usual response is “this story is about women, why do you always talk about men in stories about women?” There’s two answers to that;
1. It’s hard to comment on stories about men’s issues, because there aren’t any
2. The frequency with which stories about women’s issues appear create a false picture of the world which deserves to be challenged. Take #bringbackourgirls for example. Michelle Obama et al are quick to tell us that the kidnappings are part of a war on women’s education. That’s a lie. It’s a war on education in general. This is what Boko Harem do to boys http://www.mediaite.com/online/why-did-kidnapping-girls-but-not-burning-boys-alive-wake-media-up-to-boko-haram/ But on that occasion the hashtagtivists were silent, because it doesn’t fit the story they want to tell
While I’m at it, since you mentioned circumcision, did you see all those stories about boys dying after contracting herpes from oral circumcision? Me neither
But Stephen, how do you propose they get dealt with? People can not deal with problems they are unaware of. I’m not a feminist by the way, or at least I don’t think I am. The issues that Etienne hilighted are huge. personally I think there may be far too much emphasis put on gender when dealing with all issues from domestic violence to unemployment and single parent issues. But, as society tends to be content in separating issues by gender (no idea why) I think the male side of things also needs to be hilighted.
Thanks for the reply Etienne. as I’ve said before I personally think most issues should be dealt with without gender coming into it at all. why aren’t journalists writing the articles about male issues is my next question? I’m not asking these questions to antagonise, I genuinely am curious as it makes no sense to me. also I was aware what boko haram do and did to those boys and for the life of me I do not understand why the hell it wasn’t hilighted more! Do you think that as a society we tend to have a protect the female mentality and so people use that instinct/conditioning to further their own causes? so in the case of free our girls, they actually no more care about the girls than they do the boys but have an agenda of their own?
Well that’s just it, we used to talk about women who are raped, women who are abused as if the maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius never mattered. And the new one is “male violence against women”. Language is chosen to paint a certain picture
We SHOULD be talking about PEOPLE who are abused, and violence by PEOPLE against PEOPLE. Sex should be as relevant as skin colour when it comes to the crimes and suffering of individual people
Yeah Dell, that’s exactly what I think. Well, I’m sure people do genuinely want those girls freed but look at how they’ve ignored what happens to boys in Africa. Certain people are willing to ignore the horrific murders of scores of children lest it alter the picture they want us to have
Yes, im not saying that most don’t have their heart in the right place, but I wonder why only the girls got the press? Personally I think that putting genders on issues actually makes some issues worse and creates hostility between the sexes.
You’re right. Here we are talking about the slant on the reporting instead of the crime itself
On a positive note, Etienne. As more publications begin to move online due to the inevitable death of print media, it’ll cause a major shakeup because I think we’ve finally hit a turning point and men, and those actually interested in equality, those with brother, fathers, and sons – simply won’t tolerate not being heard for much longer.
It’s already happening.
And men make up the majority of readers on news site all around the world.
Is it not true, men are more likely to be interested in politics than women which would mean that there be less female candidates signing up, should we just put unqualified people in? would you rather women just be elected based on their gender? what about merit??
Merit hence the word Merit should I walk into a job and say hire me i am a man? oh of course not id be labeled sexist! that is what women quotas, are just an upper hand for women to get things handed to them!
Radio is a commercial entity. If you’re good you’ll get the job and hold the audience, if not, you won’t.
Radio has always been primarily a male dominated area. We have some fine female broadcasters.
In fact, per hours worked Marian Finnucane is by far the highest paid in the country.
However, I take the ‘women on air’ group with a grain of salt. I’ve seen previous articles from them before and they are feminist, agenda driven, nonsense. They make no sense, the research is utterly skewed and they have no credibility.
For example, the most listened to current affairs programme in the country is Drivetime, and has a female presenter. Women on air makes no attempt in their research to account for the audience reach numbers. Mary Daly may reach more of an audience than 10 of the other male presenters combined. But they choose to ignore that entirely. Ludicrous.
Nah, this group cannot be taken seriously, and are more about jobs for the girls than anything.
Good post.
Do women want to listen to women?
Can we demand gender parity in teaching & medicine?
Its becoming increasingly possible for a child to go through their educational career with only meeting the odd male teacher .
Won’t happen in education because the female teachers will resist it.
There are deeper concerns though, and the DOE does actually have within its legal capability the power to discriminate on gender grounds if it is for the benefit of students (I heard a senior civil servant say that to Pat Kenny recently on air when talking about the lack of male teachers).
Remember how they seethed at being called a “feminised” audience? Who cares if it’s true!
Here we go again,change the record.
No I can’t imagine a female George Hook,thanks very much I am having me dinner.
Though come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Hook in the same room as Joan Burton.
I’ve never seen Ender Kenny in a room with any journalist!
Too often intelligent men are left of the screen in place of big breasted bimbos trying to explain something they don’t understand.
Or other women that are not big breasted bimbos that can’t get a look in either. Remember when RTE wanted to drop the meteorlogical staff in favour clueless of pretty faces on the news?
There is only one way to fix this. It has to start with early education. We take all the boys aside and tell them and instruct them to take hair and shoes more seriously!
The keep out sign is probably there because all you want to talk about is gender inequality. If you don’t pick a different issue, what do you expect
Aoife why did you remove my sexist remark?? That’s being sexist towards me because I’m a man!
Gizmo, your sexist remark is still there.. Typical man, can’t find something right under your nose.. See what I did there? ;-)
I removed your sexist remark because… The clue is in the word ‘sexist’, Gizmo!
Fell I beg to differ, typical woman seeing things that aren’t there! And Aoife you’re on the ball this evening!
Dell!
Gizmo!
Gizmo, Seriously, if you are talking about the comment about the sandwich, that is still in the comments right in front of me, if it was something else then fair enough. maybe its a glitch with the app, often people say their comments are gone and they are still there on my app.
If you refresh the page they’ll disappear dell.
Yup Niall, did that and even completely came out of the app and back in, its still there. personally, I thought it was funny.
This positive gender based discrimination ticks me off. Women aren’t in politics coz they simply choose not to be, in vast numbers. Same as most men choose not to be air stewards or receptionists. Certain profiles suit the sexes.
Any woman who is in politics or hi rank biz or whatever, is there thru grit, vision and determination.
We are all created equal, just not the same..makes for a better world don’t ya know!!!
There’s no such thing as positive discrimination. There’s either discrimination or there isn’t
Etienne, I completely agree with that. if there are equality issues anywhere, giving people special privileges is not the answer. two wrongs do not make a right.
Whats stopping women in media, im of the belief that it should be the best person for the job, your asking why women are not how about start asking whats stopping women.
That is exactly what the aeticle is asking. Did you read it?
The suggestion is that women don’t put themselves forward.
A ‘keep out’ sign? How are the men supposed to get their teas and coffees so?
Because the perceived glass ceiling is such an issue, to some sections of society, trumping all others by the sounds of it. why don’t the women of this country found a political party with the soul purpose of getting parity with males in every sector of irish life? U have roughly 50% of the vote, use it and stop crying ffs. If anything it will show these feminists how little support they actually have and maybe can get some peace!!
If that happened then men would need to form a male only party otherwise women would completely run the country. This would lead to even further antagonism between the sexes. Then the great war of Men vs women would break out and then our species would become extinct
The horror
I doubt that. The Women’s a Coalition in NI didn’t spark any such reaction
have a all female line up no one bats an eye
have a all male line up and everyone goes bat sh*t crazy
Why was Rabbite at this one ? With an event like this I think Joan Burton would have been an ideal speaker. Well she has such a calming , soothing voice . I’m sure her dulcet tones would have kept the delegates enthralled for hours.
Newstalk get a bashing for its “all male” primetime line up, so how come its JNLR show positive results? I would add Nora Casey to the quality talent list with Miriam, Clare and Mary but don’t know if there’s anyone else as good. As for positive discrimination, those who benefit from it will be found out quickly if they don’t have the talent.
Like Norah Casey!
I sit corrected
have your say