The efficacy of the new Employment Action Plan (EAP), aimed at getting under-25s off the dole, was questioned yesterday by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) and the Opposition parties.
In the first extension of the scheme to over 25s, FAS will provide a £25-a-week training bonus to the long term unemployed in the new year, increasing their benefits to £96.
The INOU's secretary general, Mr Mike Allen, said the scheme, initially aimed at under-25s who are six months on the dole, was not working for most people who were interviewed at FAS centres.
At a briefing by the INOU on next week's budget, he called for a £1,000 increase in tax allowances at the standard rate to benefit the lower paid and "a very clear bottom line of income adequacy" for unemployed people. Ms Nora Owen TD, the Fine Gael spokeswoman on enterprise, trade and employment, said at the same event that four out of ten people had not taken up the invitation to be interviewed since the scheme's implementation last September.
The Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias de Rossa TD, said he had received reports of people with literacy problems being allocated places for which high literacy levels were required.
As is not geared up to cater for that," he said. A spokesman for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which is responsible for FAS, rejected the criticism saying 7,500 training places had been provided for under 25s, and were tailored to specific needs.
