Almost 2,000 unemployed people in the region have been on jobseeker's allowance for over a year

Almost 2,000 unemployed people in the Shannonside region have been on jobseeker's allowance for over a year. It includes 698 in Longford, 687 in Roscommon and 553 in Leitrim.

These don't include people who work up to three days a week and get partial jobseeker's allowance payments. Longford Fianna Fáil councillor, Seamus Butler, says the figures are very worrying: