The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed has warned against tightening the conditions for obtaining unemployment payments, saying that this might "further marginalise the long-term jobless".
In a briefing paper, the INOU expressed concern at a possible shift in attitudes in Ireland about the right of unemployed people to receive welfare payments.
"The debate is primarily fuelled by claims from employer organisations that they cannot get people to fill vacancies", it stated. "The widespread debate about welfare fraud in late 1996 . . . also led to calls for greater vigilance in relation to monitoring unemployed people's efforts to find work and to tighten administrative controls for eligibility."
Proposals for a tightening of conditions have appeared in a number of Government documents over the past year, among them Partnership 2000, the White Paper on Human Resource Development and the 1997 Social Welfare Act.
In addition, the Fianna Fail/ Progressive Democrats programme for government makes "attacking fraud and abuse of social welfare" a key policy issue.
In its paper, the INOU warns against the development of a system where eligibility for welfare payments is monitored by the same agencies which provide support, advice and work placement.
"Effective labour market reintegration measures and control of fraud are best delivered by separate institutional arrangements. Where the monitoring of eligibility for payments is confused with the provision of reintegration programmes, long-term unemployed people are less likely to be helped back into work."
The INOU also warns against imposing a condition that unemployed people must register with FAS or the new Local Employment Service (LES).
