Organisations representing small business and the unemployed are at loggerheads over the issue of the social welfare system being "in competition" with the jobs market.
Mr Paul Billings, chairman of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU), said yesterday that a survey carried out on job opportunities in Dublin's city centre, which found 40 outlets with vacancies, was unscientific and a "publicity rant".
The survey, carried out on behalf of the small firms association, ISME, found that hourly wage rates ranged from £2.50 plus tips or commission in waiting staff positions, to £4.38 for night work in a fast-food restaurant.
Mr Frank Mulcahy, ISME's chief executive, said the survey raised questions about the 240,000 unemployed people who are legally bound to be "available for work". In ISME's document, published this week, the companies with vacancies in Grafton Street and Henry Street have been named. "There can be nothing unscientific about that," Mr Mulcahy said.
Mr Billings said jobs were on offer with poor wages and conditions. Most recruitment problems related to skills shortages, and employers had prejudices against localities, older workers and the long-term unemployed, he said.
"It is doubtful if ISME would have achieved the same results . . . if they sent a 50-yearold long-term unemployed man from a severely disadvantaged area to investigate the jobs market," he said.
Mr Mulcahy said he would "half accept" the point about older applicants and asked what FAS was doing with its annual £500 million budget. "It should be preparing them to take on jobs like that," he said.
The INOU has recommended a minimum wage of £4.60, set at two-thirds of the average industrial wage. A spokeswoman said that even at that rate there was an urgent need for tax reform to address the lower-paid.