Give a carrot, not a handout
While nobody can deny the validity of claims by those who have, through unfortunate circumstances, found themselves jobless, the constant labelling of the long-term unemployed as the least fortunate in our society must be challenged.
Our social welfare system is flawed in that people can be better off by not working. Who can blame the jobless when so many entitlements are lost by getting on the lower rungs of the jobs ladder? There is often little or no incentive to work a 40-hour week. Despite this, the budget is consistently lambasted for not being generous enough to those on social welfare.
But what does the taxpayer owe those who don't want to work and opt instead for all the benefits they can get for nothing? Instead of more handouts, let's give them greater incentives to work.
And let's give the hard-working, poorly paid working class the praise, respect and credit they deserve; they are the least fortunate and most courageous members of our society the real drivers of the economy who get very little in return.
Seamus Lynch,
1, Seaview Park,
Portrane,
Co Dublin
![<p>'Despite the fact that the Irish Science Teachers’ Association, the ASTI and the Irish Universities Association representatives on the NCCA Biology, Chemistry, and Physics have publicly dissociated from the flawed model [in the senior cycle curriculum plan], all of these concerns have been ignored by the Department of Education.' </p>](/cms_media/module_img/9742/4871127_9_augmentedSearch_PA-49006269_1_.jpg "<p>'Despite the fact that the Irish Science Teachers’ Association, the ASTI and the Irish Universities Association representatives on the NCCA Biology, Chemistry, and Physics have publicly dissociated from the flawed model [in the senior cycle curriculum plan], all of these concerns have been ignored by the Department of Education.' </p>")
