Fine Gael 'punching down' with unemployment pledge - SF

Fine Gael leader Simon Harris's pledge to penalise long-term unemployed people who refuse to engage with services to get them back to work is an example of the party " punching down at people", a Sinn Féin TD has said.

Mr Harris made the comments in his leader's speech at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis last night, adding that "the dole is a safety net, not a way of life".

Speaking on RTÉ's The Week in Politics, Wicklow TD John Brady said Fine Gael has "always looked after the well off" and "the privileged in society".

Such remarks, Mr Brady said, have been heard " in the past with Leo Varadkar, with his false and fake welfare cheats campaign".

"We see this again, punching down at people instead of punching up where the real issues are," he said.

Mr Brady added: "I find it very ironic coming from a Tánaiste who signed off on the National Children's Hospital, where hundreds of millions of taxpayers' money has been essentially wasted on a really poor contract that was put in place.

"So, the real issue here is we're in the middle of a living crisis, there's no commentary in terms of delivering a living wage to help those who are really at the pin of their collar trying to struggle and survive and put food on the table."

Harris doubles down on unemployment comments

Speaking on the same programme, the Tánaiste defended his comments, saying figures last week showed 52,000 people are classified as long-term unemployed, at a time that there is full employment in the country.

He said that what he said in his speech was about common-sense politics and not leaving anyone languishing on social welfare.

"This is about lifting people up, not punching down on people," he said. "But I'm not willing to write anybody off in this country.

"And I'm not willing to accept a situation where thousands upon thousands of people are jobless for a long period of time.

"I also think, for a lot of people out there who are working hard, they do not want to see any sort of situation where there are people who aren't working for year after year.

"And bear in mind, these are people who are able to work. We're not talking about a person who's getting a disability payment or an older person or a carer. We're talking about people who are fit to work and they need to make a positive contribution to this country.

"I stand over that comment 100%."

He said the recently published Social Welfare Bill showed Fine Gael and its partners in government intended to increase the penalty for those who did not engage in return-to-work schemes.

However he said this was not the starting point.

"Social protection officers want to work with people to help get you into employment. But it's bad for society, bad for the economy, and unfair if people are left in long-term unemployment."

He said more work would also be done on pathways to work.

'Cheap headline'

Independent TD Paul Gogarty said he does not have an issue with the Fine Gael leader's promise, but said Mr Harris should have delved deeper into the issue of unemployment before delivering a "soundbite".

Mr Gogarty said: "I don't have an issue, because there is an emotional viewpoint that when people are working hard and they see people who aren't working and contributing that they're sponging off the system.

"So what Simon Harris was doing by using the soundbite was appealing to that kind of instinctive reaction."

Mr Gogarty said Mr Harris "elaborated a little bit more" about trying to help the people in long-term employment later in his keynote speech in University College Cork.

"He should have said that at the outset rather go for the cheap headline," he added.

The Independent TD the reasons for people being long-term unemployed needs to be looked at.

He said: " My own Enterprise Tourism and Employment Committee this week, for example, discussed the issue about job opportunities for young people.

"We found that a lot of the time young people aren't even getting the chance to get involved in the early age in the employment market because they need experience.

"So for example, with AI systems now apparently trawling through the applications, if you don't have one year to work in a coffee shop, you're not getting that chance."

"People do need help to get back into the market, they need training, they need to build up confidence and they need real opportunities".