The Irish Times view on the long-term unemployed: Harris’s dubious target

Detailed summary

A Government which has been slow to respond to the AI revolution would do well to get on and focus on this, rather than diverting attention to some kind of imagined “crackdown” on…

Tánaiste Simon Harris clearly made a decision that his ard fheis speech last weekend was going to mark a shift to the right. But his attack on the long-term unemployed was ill-judged and continues to cause controversy, with a row in the Dáil yesterday when Peter Burke, Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, was forced to jump to his defence in the face of criticism from the Opposition.

A new Pathways to Work programme is in preparation to help people get back to employment, but Calleary made clear that rooting out those taking advantage of the system would not be its focus. Figures show that most of those on longer-term unemployment for sustained periods are older workers who presumably find it hard to get back into the workforce for a variety of reasons.

Harris should instead focus on the real threats facing the jobs market. Ireland has a low rate of unemployment, but there are fears that AI is going to lead to some disruption of the market. International evidence on its impact on employment is so far mixed. But there are worrying signs that it is reducing the number of entry-level positions in some sectors – and it is sure to have a fundamental impact on many jobs in the years ahead.

This requires a thought-through State strategy. Harris in his speech said a new employment strategy was, indeed, in preparation. A Government which has been slow to respond to the AI revolution would do well to get on and focus on this, rather than diverting attention to some kind of imagined “crackdown” on the long-term unemployed.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Irish Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.