Long-term unemployed - Move to cut jobless figures welcome

IF 150,000 Poles can get jobs in Ireland — there should be no reason why 150,000 Irish people categorised as long-term unemployed cannot find work.

That’s the blunt message behind a get-tough campaign being launched by two Government ministers with the objective of cutting the country’s jobless figures.

It is hard to argue with the logic of the carrot-and-stick approach being adopted in a joint initiative to resolve this persistent problem by Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan and Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin.

Under a new scheme due to come into force later this month, anyone claiming unemployment benefit will have to register with FÁS for training or work placement after just three months. At present, they must go to FÁS, the national training and employment authority, after six months.

As Mr Brennan succinctly put it: “If 150,000 people who came from Poland to Ireland in the last two years can get employment, then we have to assume that with additional support and training and legislation our own 150,000 long-term unemployed can do the same.”

The bitter irony is that many immigrants from former communist states now in the EU club are highly qualified but they are so keen to earn a living they are working in relatively menial jobs in this country.

The bottom line, at least as far as the two ministers are concerned, is that they do not accept the image of Ireland as a virtually full-employment economy.

Nor do they believe that an unemployment core level of 4.4%, roughly 150,000 people, represents a rock-bottom figure which cannot be lowered further.

Within reason, it makes a great deal of sense to encourage lone parents, people with disability, and those who are unemployed for longer than a year, to go into the workplace.

While the scheme will effectively force a substantial slice of the long-term unemployed to go back to work, the PR line is that they will be assisted to overcome any barrier which may be in their way.

Significantly, an investigation of secondary benefits is being carried out to discover what measures discourage or prevent people from going into the workplace. Those regarded as obstacles will either be abolished, replaced or radically changed in emphasis.

Under new carrot-and-stick policies, people that are unemployed for more than three months will in future have to co-operate with FÁS if they want to continue claiming the jobseeker’s allowance.

This combines existing unemployment benefits and assistance schemes. With figures showing that for every 1,000 people who go to FÁS, something like 40% opt to go off the register, the obvious conclusion is that six months is far too long for people to be unemployed. The proposal to halve the deadline for actively engaging with FÁS, a measure that for the first time includes unemployed people aged between 55 and 64, makes much sense.

However, it is worrying that the employment system is not working for people with disabilities. Apparently, the problem comes down to a systems failure rather than lack of funding.

An official study is now being carried out to explain this unsatisfactory scenario.

Clearly, while there is a need for training, education or jobs guidance, there is also scope for changing managerial attitudes in both the public and private sectors towards the recruitment of people with disabilities.

On the basis that earlier intervention can get more people back into the workforce and help them avoid long-term unemployment, the initiatives being taken to resolve this problem are timely and deserve to be supported.