The Minister for Social Affairs, Mr Ahern, has distanced himself from proposals made by the Tanaiste to cut young people's social welfare payments if they refuse offers of work, training or work experience.
Mr Ahern said yesterday unemployed people were not required to accept "an unreasonable situation where they would be economically disadvantaged as a result of a refusal" to accept an offer of work or training.
Speaking at the publication of a new three-year strategy statement for his Department, Mr Ahern said unemployment among under25s was "the last of our worries as a nation". The real problem now lay among unemployed people who were over the age of 25 and did not have the skills needed for the jobs available.
Ms Harney has proposed that people under 25 who have been unemployed for more than six months should have their payments cut off if they refuse an offer. The threshold for cutting off payments to over-25s would be 12 months of unemployment.
Mr Ahern said his Department had increased the proportion of spending on pro-active employment measures from 1 per cent in 1990 to 16 per cent now. This showed it was working hard to provide people with the opportunity to find work.
"It's not possible or reasonable for the State to pay people and not to give them an offer of a job or training," he said. "But because of the economic boom, we're getting to the hard core of people who, maybe through no fault of their own, are not able to find a job.'
The policy of the present Government was not much different from that of the previous one, he maintained. Mr Ahern cited proposals made by the Labour leader, Mr Quinn, when he was Minister for Finance, which envisaged the withdrawal of income support for under-25s in some circumstances.
The Minister said the best way to build an inclusive society was to ensure tax breaks were centred where they would have the most effect on employment and the least impact on inflation, with an emphasis on the low-paid.
"I would like to see a situation whereby we could say to people: `Take up a job and you will not pay any tax or PRSI on, say, your first £100 per week.' That would build on the incentives set out in Budget `98 and would guarantee that it pays to work."
