FG calls for back-to-work subsidy

Fine Gael has proposed that employers taking on new staff would receive a subsidy of up to €6,000 over two years.

The money would come funding which would otherwise be earmarked for social welfare payments.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said under the scheme employers taking on new staff would receive a €4,000 subsidy and €2,000 in the second year.

He said that the €4,000 back to work subsidy was the equivalent of 37per cent of the annual job seeker allowance.

The subsidy would be paid through deductions in the PRSI system for employers.

Mr Kenny said that Ireland was facing the “very real prospect of a lost generation of a young people who cannot get work”

He said that there has been a 123 per cent rise in people between 25 & 34 on the live register over the last 12 months – an increase of 68,760 people.