Jobs plan a ‘community service sentence’

Fianna Fáil has described a new scheme putting 800 long-term unemployed people to work for local authorities in Dublin as a “two-year community service sentence”, with people having to work almost for free or be forced off the dole.

Under the Gateway initiative, 800 dole claimants who have been on the Live Register for more than a year, will be paid an extra €20 per week on top of their jobseekers allowance.

They will work in a number of areas including: village enhancement schemes; landscaping; tourism ambassadors; animal control; and libraries.