The operation of the new £25-a-week allowance for long-term unemployed people who take up training courses with FAS has come under attack from the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed and from the Scheme Workers' Alliance, which represents people on Community Employment schemes.
The INOU has accused the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, and her Department, of "bureaucratic inefficiency" in introducing the allowance, which was promised in the December Budget. As a result, thousands of people who had already joined schemes had been "cheated".
The INOU chairman, Mr Barrie McLatchie, said the allowance was worthless to people in receipt of a rent allowance, or living in local authority housing, as rents were means-tested and every extra £1 received would be cancelled out by a rent adjustment. He said it was "particularly galling for people living on £70.50p a week to hear the Department congratulate itself on doing what it promised to do six months ago".
The SWA welcomed the increase for long-term unemployed entering FAS skills training programmes, but said the payment should also go to Community Employment scheme participants.