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.