Benefit cuts suggestion criticised

The unemployed did not need to be incentivised or threatened with sanctions to get back to work, the policy officer with the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) has said.

Brid O'Brien said the unemployed were "desperate to get back to work" and questioned how successful job activation measures could be if there were "no jobs to go to".

Responding to reports that the OECD has called for cuts to unemployment benefit and assistance as current rates could act as disincentives to seeking work, she said the consensus appeared to be that welfare had to be cut to force people back to work.

Speaking at the INOU's annual conference in Dublin today she said the Jobs Initiative announced recently envisaged creating 6,000 temporary jobs in construction.

"In the past few years we have lost 270,000 jobs in construction. The unemployed are to be incentivised to go back to work. What work? What jobs? The message we have to get out is that job creation is the solution. Cuts are not the answer."

She also called for a date to be named for the restoration of the national minimum wage to €8.65 per hour.

Opening the conference, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton called on the private sector to provide work experience to people on the live register, as part of the new National Internship Scheme which begins in July.

The scheme would provide 5,000 internship opportunities of six to nine months' duration in the community and voluntary and public sectors.

"I do expect the private sector to step up to the plate and provide opportunities in this situation. It will be a new structure for Ireland and a new opportunity."

She said she wanted to "change the agenda" of her Department. "It is about changing so we have a society which is caring and supports people who are unemployed, to encourage them.

"But this is a social contract, that you pay into when you are working and when you retire, or are a child, or when you're ill or unemployed, supports you.

"It is important people have confidence that system is fair and is not abused. Otherwise people question it and look for reduction in taxes and contributions. Reform will be targeted at helping people to take the the opportunities to get work."

The conference heard the long-term unemployment rate was 7.1 per cent, while at the end of the last decade it was about one per cent. Ms O'Brien said this demonstrated that when jobs were available the unemployed took them

"The real challenge is to get the message out that the solution is jobs, jobs, jobs, not cuts, cuts, cuts."