The Tánaiste has pledged to make employment and competitiveness the main focus of December's Budget as new figures point to a looming jobs crisis.
Responding to criticism of the Government's management of the jobs market, Ms Harney promised a focus on increasing employment and improving competitiveness in the traded sector.
The undertaking was made after live register figures showed that more people joined the dole queue last month than at any point since the end of 1986.
The figures came amid news of more than 100 fresh redundancies at two companies in Dublin, with 80 going at a transport firm and 37 at a steel distribution business.
The Central Statistics Office figures show the number of people registered to claim unemployment benefit rose by 11,747 to 177,852 last month. This is the highest total recorded since 1999, and comes in the wake of figures showing June to have been the worst month for redundancies so far this year.
Even when seasonal factors, such as the cessation of contracts for education workers, was considered, the dole queue was 8.3 per cent longer than in the same month of 2002.
More than 500 jobs have been lost this week alone, with the latest redundancies coming at Corus Service Centre, Ballymount, which said yesterday it was relocating to new offices in Dublin and Lisburn, with the loss of 37 staff, 25 more than expected.
Also last night, The Irish Times learned that Vanfleet Transport Ltd, based in Santry, had let 35 employees go and put another 45 on protective notice.
A spokesman for the company, which is 25 years in operation, said it expected to activate the notices within the next few weeks. He noted its problems stemmed from a price squeeze at Dunnes Stores, with which it had 90 per cent of its business. "What was requested we could not do at the price."
Another Dunnes' supplier, Neville's Bakery, Macroom, Co Cork, announced its closure this week with the loss of 50 jobs.
The live register numbers were met with alarm by the Opposition parties, who blamed the Government for the rise in the jobless total.
Fine Gael's spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Phil Hogan, said the Government had squandered the boom and failed to deal with the competitive issues behind recent job losses.
He predicted that 200,000 people would be claiming unemployment benefit before the end of the year.
Mr Brendan Howlin, of the Labour Party, described the monthly increase in the register as "shocking", and accused the Government of "sleep-walking in the face of a mounting jobs crisis".
Mr Eamon Ryan, of the Green Party, castigated the Government for "stoking inflation" and making the economy uncompetitive by embarking on a spending splurge in the run-up to the last election.
Ms Harney described the rise as "regrettable", but said it reflected "the difficult international economic environment".
It is thought that Ms Harney is preparing the ground for an offensive on the sectors where price increases have been running out of kilter with the rest of the economy.
It is known, however, that the Government is not in favour of a "price-freeze" approach, with any effort to drive competitiveness likely to be modelled on the Government-wide initiatives currently being put in place to tackle pricing in the insurance market.