Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Notwithstanding what the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection said, the numbers of long-term unemployed, including the 74,000 young people still outside education, training or employment, remain high. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection and her Department have been the subject of criticism by the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, the IMF, for failing to hit labour activation targets. Indeed, in one European Commission report she has been described as having “a broadly flat and open-ended unemployment benefits” system which remains static. Irrespective of how long someone has been claiming, the report stated “more needs to be done to alleviate or eliminate work disincentives and unemployment traps caused by some features of Ireland’s benefits system”. It has to be noted that her own policies have contributed to anomalies. If one looks at the abolition of the weekly €100 PRSI allowance, it has given rise to where someone on an annual income of €18,304 has a take-home pay of €17,343 but if they earn €1 more, €18,305, they have a take-home pay of €16,612, a differential of €731.

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