Fine Gael outlines plans to get Ireland working, end welfare dependency and tackle long-term unemployment

An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD and Minister Simon Harris TD today (Tuesday) outlined Fine Gael’s plan to get Ireland working by ending welfare dependency and tackling long-term unemployment. Fine Gael’s approach is based on supporting everyone in jobs, training or work placement.

Fine Gael in Government has helped bring about a reduction of almost 95,000 in the number of long- term unemployed people since the launch of the Action Plan for Jobs.

Fine Gael:

Is the only party with a funded jobs plan that will help create 200,000 extra jobs.
Will put long-term unemployed people at the top of the jobs queue by making it more attractive for employers to hire people who have been out of work for more than 12 and 24 months.
Will roll out a guarantee scheme for all 18 and 19 year olds, where a good quality offer of a work placement, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship will be made available within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education.
Will boost the number of available case workers to work with the long-term unemployed.

Speaking today at an event in Paypal in Dundalk, An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny TD said:

“Getting Ireland working is the top priority of Fine Gael in Government. We believe in the value of work; we understand the sense of independence and pride that comes from earning a living. We have seen 135,000 extra jobs created since we launched our Action Plan for Jobs. Fine Gael is the only party with a funded jobs plan which we will use to break the endless cycle of poverty by getting people off welfare and into jobs.

“This is the main difference between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fáil gives people welfare. Fine Gael gives people work. Fianna Fáil traps people in joblessness and poverty. Fine Gael gives people opportunity to work and improve their lives and those of their families.

“During Fine Gael’s first term in Government we started to transform our passive welfare system into an active employment service that works with people to get them into jobs. Today there are almost 95,000 fewer long-term unemployed people since the launch of our Action Plan for Jobs. But in the next Government we need to be more radical and do more to provide everyone with the opportunity to access work.

“Fianna Fáil cannot be trusted on jobs. Not only did their disastrous economic policies cost us 300,000 jobs but they abandoned people on the dole queues and forced tens of thousands of our young people to emigrate. Fianna Fail still has no plan to help the long-term unemployed get off the dole and into work. Instead they want to hike welfare payments without any corresponding policy to make work pay, which will only make it more unaffordable for people to enter work.

“Fine Gael’s plan involves a whole new approach to eliminating chronic joblessness, welfare dependency and long-term unemployment. We’ll put long-term unemployed people to the top of the jobs queue by increasing the incentive for employers to hire those who have been out of work for more than 12 and 24 months. We will prevent young people from falling into the welfare trap by ensuring school leavers have access to further education and training.

“As the economy recovers we cannot repeat Fianna Fáil’s mistakes. During the height of the Celtic Tiger, Ireland experienced one of the highest rates of jobless households in Europe, even when unemployment was at its lowest. Building on the success of the Pathways to Work Action Plan during our first term, Fine Gael will publish a Specific Pathways to Work Plan for Jobless Households.

“Fine Gael’s Long Term Economic Plan offers our people the stability and certainty needed to keep the recovery going, by creating more and better jobs, making work pay and investing in better services. We are moving in the right direction. Together with the Irish people, Fine Gael will secure the recovery and keep it going.”