From RTE.ie
"Unemployment up 71% in 12 months"
"The Live Register saw an unadjusted increase of 120,987 or 71% in the year to December 2008 - the biggest 12-month increase since records began in 1967.
It compares to an unadjusted increase of 106,864 or 66.1% in the year to November.
The figures published by the Central Statistics Office also show that the number of people signing onto the Live Register increased by 16,300 to 293,500 in December.
The unemployment rate rose to 8.3% last month from 7.8% in November.
The CSO figures show that the number of men on the dole has risen by 83% while the number of women is up by 50% compared with December 2007.
There is also a 24% rise in unemployment among under 25s.
Economists expect the unemployment figures to deteriorate significantly in 2009 with the State training agency FÁS predicting that the rate of unemployment will exceed 12% over the course of the year."
As far as Irish passenger numbers are concerned for the coming year, it don't look good!
