Stop bank-rolling this generation of layabouts
JUST as Dublin airport recovers from the nightmare of multiple hourlong queues created by security staff shortages, Irish Rail becomes the latest travel enterprise to suffer from a severe postCovid crisis.
According to the transport company’s spokesman, the catering company that runs its on-board trolleys and snack bar is – to use one of its favourite and, for commuters, most heart-dropping phrases – ‘out of service’ for now.
‘This is a company where, obviously, the vast majority of its staff went elsewhere during a twoyear period when there was no work, so I don’t have a date in terms of it being restored,’ explained Barry Kenny on radio.
As a stopgap, the company advises passengers to bring their own drinks and sandwiches, a move that, however necessary, must surely strike at the heart of its business model.
Firstly, encouraging self-reliance is not exactly an ideal departure for a company whose survival seems to depend on squeezing every cent from passive passengers. Secondly, the oncoming trolley groaning with crisps and pastries is the only creature comfort in a journey fraught by infernal delays, overcrowding, filthy toilets and a ridiculously confusing online booking system. Its removal may bring Irish Rail perilously close to the point of no return in terms of customer tolerance.
THE company is not alone in its difficulties. The forlorn sight of permanently shuttered businesses that failed to spring back to life after restrictions lifted is a feature of most neighbourhoods and streets.
The legacy of lockdown is keenly felt in the hospitality industry, especially with the clock ticking on the summer holiday season when the bulk of profits are made and enough cash reserves are laid in to tick over in fallow periods. Last month, as the Easter holidays approached, some Ukrainian refugees had barely set foot on Irish soil before they were hired by hoteliers desperate to stay open for business.
Abbeyglen Castle Hotel in Connemara was quick to see the war-torn country as a vital labour source, bussing refugees from their accommodation in Carna to Clifden. The workers had qualifications in healthcare and marketing, but said they were more than happy to do casual work as it helped take their minds off the war and they’d as soon be busy as not.
Relying on traumatised refugees to help keep hotels open might be acceptable as long as no pressure is put on anyone to step up to the plate. It’s not as if we don’t have a ready-made, untapped supply of able-bodied Irish people available for work at a moment’s notice.
Figures show that there were 146,400 unemployed last month. Granted, not all of them are idle. Some are working on the black market and have no intention of ever going off the dole and joining the army of taxpayers – many of whom, as far as they can see, live on the breadline, despite rising at dawn to go out to work all week.
Others got out of the habit of work during the pandemic when unemployment reached an eyepopping 27.1%, or prefer ‘to play the system’, which essentially means pocketing their jobseeker’s allowance, fuel allowance and medical card while sleeping until midday.
Among the long-term unemployed there are those who suffer from social exclusion, lack confidence and even basic skills like reading and writing. Some may have never worked a day in their lives and have no role model for gainful employment among generations of their family. They need assistance and encouragement to ready for the workplace.
The State’s response to this latter cohort is particularly shameful. Essentially it throws a few hundred euro at them every week for necessities, so that they never become so desperate that they have no choice but to fall into petty crime and drug-taking.
Of course, many inevitably do, out of sheer boredom and aimlessness – a state of mind that would be avoided had they been identified early in life, set to work, and learned a few skills.
When it comes to the chronically ‘work-shy’ – those with an inflated sense of entitlement who cunningly navigate the welfare system for optimum gain – the State’s approach is to turn a blind eye, like a parent giving up on their out-of-control teenager.
But it’s a grave dereliction of responsibility for the State to allow a group of citizens metaphorically to give two fingers to the taxpayers who fund their welfare by remaining on the dole when there is a crying need for staff all over the country.
The long-term unemployed should be targeted in different ways, depending on whether wilful laziness or a difficult upbringing is the cause.
Wasters need to be firmly taken in hand and obliged to take the jobs in Irish Rail’s catering company or in the local hotels – on pain of losing their dole.
The others need time and patience, and perhaps specially tailored programmes to show them they are as capable of cutting sandwiches or cleaning tables as the next person. And perhaps to move on from menial work to better opportunities.
Savings on the dole bill could be invested in those who cannot work for a living for reasons of disability or illness, and which any civilised society worthy of the name must provide with a decent safety net.
The welfare system was set up to assist both the vulnerable and the jobless during harsh economic times. The last thing its architects envisaged was bankrolling a generation of layabouts to the extent that they can afford to reject a job during a dire labour shortage.