The Labour Party today called for a Dáil debate on job losses that have hit the economy in 2008.
Party leader Eamon Gilmore detailed more than 1,000 redundancies since the New Year and claimed hundreds more were under threat.
The Dún Laoghaire TD raised the issue with Tánaiste and Finance Minister Brian Cowen in the Dáil his morning.
Listing the job losses, Mr Gilmore said: "Three-hundred and sixty in Allergan in Arklow; 220 in Jacob's Fruitfield; 60 at Britvic in Cork; 400 in the Burlington Hotel and 1,500 under threat at SR Technics."
He said that construction employment was down by 5.4 per cent and that there were 15,000 more people on the Live Register compared with this time last year.
"Yesterday some economic experts said unemployment is going to reach 6 per cent by the end of 2008," Mr Gilmore said. "Given the huge amount of job losses we are now seeing, will the Government give an opportunity to the House to discuss the matter?"
Central Bank governor John Hurley yesterday told an Oireachtas Finance Committee that the State's 4.6 per cent unemployment rate was low by international standards.
"We would see that increasing in the course of this year,but it will still be a moderate increase. We will still be in a strong comparative situation in relation to other countries," he said.