Cut in unemployment benefits urged

UNEMPLOYMENT benefits, including housingallowances, should be reduced and the amount of welfare paid should decrease according to the length of time a person is without a job, the OECD economic report on Ireland recommends.

It warns that the collapse of the building sector has left a big number of largely unskilled youths that unless employed as soon as possible could cause social unrest and a move against the austerity measures.

While emigration has traditionally relieved Ireland’s unemployment situation, it is not such a good policy now as the best educated are leaving and may not return.