40,000 jobless people snub Fás interview

MORE than 40,000 unemployed people in line for a state-provided job or training course failed to turn up for interview.

The state training and employment agency, Fás, said 118,000 people on the dole were referred by the Department of Social Protection for interviews last year — but a third did not show up.

Despite the no-show, they continued to be paid welfare, the agency’s director general, Paul O’Toole, told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC).