The National Youth Council of Ireland has warned against "a rush to judgment" on the latest FAS figures showing 40 per cent of unemployed young people called to job interviews failed to show up.
The figures were issued by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs yesterday. The Department is responsible for the Employment Action Plan aimed at finding jobs or training for unemployed people under 25, but the actual operation of the scheme is done by FAS. It was originally proposed by the Tanaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ms Harney, who is responsible for FAS.
In the first eight weeks of the scheme, the Department reported that 1,600 people were summoned to interview to discuss career guidance, counselling and job search techniques. Of these 650 failed to turn up and 200 signed off the live register. Of those who did attend, 200 have so far been placed in jobs, Community Employment schemes and training courses or been referred to local employment services geared to help the long-term unemployed.
In an interview on RTE's News at One, the Department official responsible for overseeing the scheme, Mr Colm O'Neill, said in response to a question about the high percentage who failed to show for interview: "I have no doubt that there is a rump of chancers out there. It's hard to put a size on it, and I think it's pointless to speculate. But yes, we know for a fact, because we're always catching the chancers, we're always catching people who are abusing the system, that it goes on all the time, in all age groups."
The NYCI said the fall in the number of young people on the live register was to be welcomed, but it warned against "a rush to judgment on figures". It said more protection was needed for young people entering the workplace and called for immediate implementation of the national minimum wage of £4.40p an hour if such schemes were being pursued.
The fall of 3,600 in the number of under-25s on the live register, almost half of the total number, "is an indication that young people want to work and will do so when employment opportunities are open to them", the NYCI press officer, Mr Eamonn Waters, said.
The Labour Party spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Tommy Broughan, said that the number of young people not turning up for interview showed that the Tanaiste's plan was not working. He described the plan as "a punitive approach to solving unemployment".