Madam, – Why is there so little opposition to such bizarre and backward measures as those being introduced by the Department of Social Protection to force people to work for their welfare payment (Home news, August 30th)? Have people not heard of what this has led to in the US?
These measures have distorted the jobs market, leading potential employers to choose the free labour “workfare employee” over giving someone a proper paid job – thus removing job opportunities from the labour market. One would also have to question the job commitment of anyone who is forced to work to avoid hunger or become homeless – not exactly an enlightened approach to motivation. People need to recall the arguments and justifications of the workhouses in Irish history and they might be a bit more disturbed by our 21st-century “social protection” measures. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – As a social care student in DIT, I have spent close to €5,000 on my degree (plus extras). I have spent countless hours studying subjects such as sociology, social policy, psychology and principles of professional practice and engaged in placement work too. And for what? For someone completely unqualified to do the job I will have spent three years qualifying for, for less than half the money, it seems.
Does this make me angry? Of course! However, that is the part I can live with. What I cannot stand the injustice that is about to be done to our country’s most vulnerable people, yet again. The Kennedy report in 1970 may have specifically been looking at residential care, but its findings and recommendations need to be applied across the board. Proper staff training is a must. On-the-job training is not good enough.
The Ryan report details how people were plucked from the dole queue to fill positions in a variety of social care positions. This led to an extremely poor quality of care for people who deserved better.
Are we really going to ignore all of this? How many more reports and investigations do there need to be before we learn? Minister for Social Protection, Éamon Ó Cuív may think that social care is Mickey Mouse work but I can assure you that it is not. I wonder what would happen if he sent random jobseekers into hospitals to do some “on-the-job” medical training . . . Not on my granny, I say. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – So the Government is consideringforcing some dole recipients to work for their welfare. Why stop there? We have an ever-growing prison population and on an almost daily basis we hear we are running out of space to incarcerate offenders. Let’s get our able-bodied criminals out to work and instead of us forking out to put them up in swanky prison cells, let’s get them paying back society by doing physical labour in quarries and the like.
There are plenty of much-needed infrastructure projects in my native west that our criminals could begin the hard graft on. One hundred prisoners could take the place of one digger, thereby helping to cut our carbon emissions. And what’s more, they could be self-sufficient – fence them into an enclosure and let them grow their own food. We could even give them some animals to rear. Surely the Greens would love this idea? It’s a win-win situation for both the environment and society. Much better than coming down on law-abiding commercial vehicle users, don’t you think? – Yours, etc,