Non-Irish seeking unemployment benefit up 80%

The number of foreign nationals applying for unemployment benefit has increased by almost 80 per cent over the past year, new figures show.

The increase has been felt most sharply by members of former EU accession states where numbers have jumped by some 144 per cent since September of last year.

When the foreign national figures are broken down, they show that most who have signed on the live register are members of former EU accession states (8 per cent), followed by UK nationals (4 per cent), those outside the EU (3.4 per cent) and the "EU 15" (1 per cent).

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