Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton was this week quoted by the Sunday Independent as claiming that many young people on social welfare choose to be so as a “lifestyle choice”.The Minister asserts that “what we are getting at the moment is people who come into the system straight after school as a lifestyle choice.”
There are now 446,800 people signing on to the live register, with unemployment figures standing at 14.2% according to the most recent data from the Central Statistics Office.
This begs the obvious question, just where are the jobs that the Minister seems to believe these young people have foresaken?
Rather than attempt to meaningfully address the lack of employment options available to young people, the minister has chosen instead to pursue a course of social bigotry in an attempt to portray young people on the live register as lazy. By doing so she hopes to direct public discord away from her own Governments failings in relation to unemployment, and shift the blame on to the young unemployed.
These comments from the Minister for Social Protection display just how detached Minister Burton is from the reality what life is like for unemployed youths in Ireland. It seems the Minister fails to recognize that the vast majority of young people who are unemployed have been forced into their situation, and few, would consider their 'dole' as anything much of a lifestyle.
Minister Burton outlined her plan to introduce cuts of as much as €44 per week, to those who refuse to take up a place on a Government sponsored training course, regardless it seems, of whether or not that training would be of any professional benefit, or any improvement on previous qualifications.
The opposition have been quick to point out that by further punishing those who are dependent on social welfare, rather than focusing on job creation, the Minister risks damaging the economic situation of the country further, for basic economic understanding will tell you that almost all money recieved through social welfare is money that will go straight back into the economy, therefore sustaining existing jobs.
It seems beyond doubt at this point that Fine Gael and Labour have picked up where their Fianna Fail predecessors left off by opting to target the most vulnerable and least represented people in Irish society, persistently going after the sick, the elderly and young unemployed.
It is certainly cause for concern when the Minister for Social Protection cannot identify that it is a lack of choice, as opposed to "lifestyle choice", that is leading so many young people to sign on the live register.
As Minister Burton, who earns a basic salary of over 169k per year, prepares for her forthcoming seven week holidays from the Dail, those who are interested in seeing Ireland come out of this disastrous situation must surely be asking whether Minister Burton's own priveleged 'lifestyle' is perhaps affecting her ability to relate to those who are truly struggling in the Irish welfare system.
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