The Government was accused yesterday by Mr Eddie Glacken, chief executive of the Irish Trade Union Trust (ITUT), of not doing enough to help the thousands of workers being made redundant each year.
The trust is an agency funded by SIPTU members to help unemployed and retired members, their families and deprived communities in general.
"Despite the booming economy up to 12,000 workers were made redundant in 1997 and 3,500 in the first three months of this year," he said at the opening of ITUT offices in Liberty Hall, Dublin.
While Government task forces had been set up to deal with the consequences of a small number of high-profile plants like Seagate, there was "no ongoing co-ordinated service provided by the State to deal with the issue of redundancy".
He contrasted this with ITUT's own outreach service helping 2,500 redundant workers over the past 12 months. He said this could provide a model for similar State intervention. He gave, as an example of an ITUT initiative, the case of a distribution company which was making its drivers redundant. ITUT had helped them form a co-operative which had successfully tendered for the contracted-out work.
The EU Commissioner for Social Affairs, Mr Padraig Flynn, who formally opened the new offices, said the SIPTU initiative was a striking example of social solidarity.
Ms Naomi Brennan, of the ITUT, outlined its programmes, ranging from helping communities in Dublin tackle the drugs problem to adult literacy programmes and a new pilot project to target unemployment among women in rural areas.