Salary of €25,000 'not enough to attract staff'
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THE Government has ordered a full investigation into claims that some Irish businesses have been unable to recruit staff on wages of €25,000.
West of Ireland business owners made the complaints last week to two senior government ministers.
Enterprise Minister Batt O'Keeffe said he was taken aback by the claims -- particularly with almost 450,000 people unemployed in Ireland.
He has ordered a full probe into the claims.
"Forfas is now doing an analysis of the whole area to see if there a foundation for this particular allegation that's being made," he said.
Mr O'Keeffe also said that he was hopeful Ireland's unemployment figures would ease in September with the 2010-2011 school year having recommenced.
"Obviously we're very concerned at the level of unemployment," he said.
"Into next year, we're hoping that there will be an impact on jobs because we're going to have about 3pc to 3.5pc growth in the economy and that should improve the overall situation."
Mr O'Keeffe warned against pundits who claimed that unemployment levels would reach 500,000, arguing that many unemployed people were now going back to education.
- Ralph Riegel
Irish Independent
