‘Pitiful’ O Cuiv wants to use unemployed people as cheap labour

TO say Social Protection Minister Eamon O Cuiv’s’ performance on RTÉ’s Prime Time (September 7) was pitiful would be excessive praise.

He is proof that ministers do not need any acumen for their portfolios. On Prime Time he hid his intention to recruit the unemployed as cheap labour behind a whinge about welfare fraud. He did nothing to clarify that highly qualified people would be placed in schemes reflecting their skills – not of course that good skills should be cheaply bought. A qualified teacher, for example, should never have to work involuntarily in a cafe. Not even a young school-leaver should have to sweep streets when a prisoner should be doing it. In short, no unemployed person should be sweeping streets just to make their inept Government look proactive.

O Cuiv’s declaration that non-availability for welfare interviews would suggest fraud is utterly stupid. Attendance at a few interviews a year would not deter the real, and few, fraudsters from breaking the law.