A decision not to renew the contracts of hundreds of participants on a FÁS-supported jobs scheme has been sharply criticised by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).
About 300 people in the job initiative programme, mainly based in Dublin and Limerick, are to lose their places over the next two months. FÁS has denied, however, that the move is due to cutbacks in its budget, and says 85 per cent of those losing their places will be replaced by new participants in the scheme.
Its decision not to renew the contracts of a number of existing participants was described as "short-sighted" and "unacceptable" by the INOU.
Job initiative is a special support scheme for people aged over 35, who live in a designated partnership area and have been unemployed for more than five years. The 2,370 participants are paid a weekly wage of €297 by FÁS, and most work in the community and voluntary sector. It had always been the intention, FÁS said yesterday, that individuals should remain on the scheme for a maximum of three years, before progressing to mainstream employment.
Those whose contracts will not be renewed over the next two months had been on the scheme for five or six years.
"This process will provide greater access by the freeing up of places on the scheme to other persons in similar circumstances," it said.