In the mire: Dole queues longest ever, mortgage chaos

The dole queues have never been as long as they were last month in Irish history, while more mortgage holders find themselves in trouble.

Exactly 469,713 jobseekers claimed benefits in August – that’s an all-time high of 14.4pc.

Not since the first official figures were recorded in 1967 has the unemployment rate been so high and the most recent report from the Central Statistics Office shows 88,770 under-25s signing on last month.

The number of male claimants has fallen marginally so far this year, but just by 1pc to 296,853.

Chief executive of ISME, Mark Fielding, said: “The Government’s jobs initiative, while well-meaning, is only putting a sticking plaster over the wound and not addressing the core problem of unemployment and in particular the explosion of long-term unemployment, which has become embedded in the economy.”

Meanwhile, Permanent TSB has seen a 24pc rise in mortgage arrears in the first six months of this year.

Irish mortgage holders behind in their repayments for more than 90 days has increased from 6.8pc to 8.8pc.

Irish Life & Permanent reported a €349 million loss for the first half of 2011.