CONTROVERSIES over TV deflector systems and water charges are distracting the public from more important issues such as unemployment, according to the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton.
He says that "when the election comes" politicians must be prepared to address central questions like unemployment and go out to meet the unemployed.
He was speaking to the media alter addressing the 10th annual conference of the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed in Dublin yesterday. It is the first time a Taoiseach has addressed the INOU.
"The central issue in our society is, `Do you have the opportunity to work or not'," Mr Bruton said. "Because if you don't have the opportunity to work you are effectively excluded from our society, both in the way it distributes its wealth and the way in which it develops itself.
"I think it's very important, whenever the general election comes, for politicians to talk to the unemployed, to meet them on the doorsteps and hear their concerns first hand. And I hope that coming from that consultation there will be an even higher priority in future given to the problem of unemployment."
The INOU's general secretary, Mr Mike Allen, said that 10 years ago 1,000 people a month were losing their jobs. Now 1,000 people a week were gaining jobs, but they were not the same people. The long term unemployed were watching their own children sign on the dole and watching drugs, take over their neighbourhoods.