The Fine Gael Finance spokesman, Mr Richard Bruton, has referred to the latest CSO figures as the `final nail in the coffin¿ of the Government.
The rate of recruitment in the public sector in the months prior to the General Election was over three-times the rate in the previous two years.
Yesterday's figures indicate that over 14,000 workers were recruited to the public service in the months leading up to the May General Election. Mr Bruton challenged the Government saying the idea it was unaware of a surge in recruitment at that time `beggars belief.'
He went on to say it suggested the Minister for Finance and his Department was guilty either of `gross incompetence' or of an attempt to deliberately `conceal' what went on.
He accused the Government of `happily feathering its political nest' at a time when other industries were facing increasingly difficult conditions and were laying-off 17,000 workers.
The figures, published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), indicated a slight turnaround with a rise in employment of 4,400 to 1.749 million and a rise of 2,800 in the number of those out of work.