The forthcoming budget must prioritise jobs through education and training, the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed has said.
Organisation head of policy Bríd O’Brien called for social welfare rates to be maintained as stated in the Programme for Government at the launch of its pre-budget submission yesterday. Initiatives by the Departments of Social Protection and Education and Training would not amount to anything if the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation was not creating employment, she asserted.
“If they’re not creating jobs, Joan Burton and Ruairí Quinn and everybody else can talk about activation until they’re blue in the face, but, if there are no jobs for people to go into, activation isn’t going to get very far.”