An alternative approach

"There are now 428,000 people on the live register. The corrosive effect of this – the risk of long-term unemployment and the pressure on the public finances – emphasises the need for a holistic approach to the crisis.

Simplistic solutions like the short, sharp correction don’t cut it at all. Jobs, their protection and creation, must be at the heart of everything we do. It is important to realise that finding a way out of our current crisis is not just an economic challenge. A country is much more than an economy and it is this point of departure that motivated Ictu to launch the Get Up Stand Up campaign."

You can read the rest of David Begg's opinion piece in today's Irish Times here.