Minister Joan Burton has said it is unacceptable that social welfare has become a ‘lifestyle choice’ for many school leavers.
The Minister for Social Protection has said that the dole lifestyle choice should no longer be tolerated.
“What we are getting at the moment is people who come into the system straight after school as a lifestyle choice. This is not acceptable, everyone should be expected to contribute and work,” she said.
Those who failed to cooperate with her department by not taking job or training opportunities will lose up to €44 a week.
Her comments come as her fellow minister Brendan Howlin is preparing proposals that may well include savage cuts to the payments currently paid out by the state to such groups as the poor, the sick and the elderly.
The cuts are seen as necessary to meet a target of €3.8bn deemed by the government necessary if Ireland is to stop sinking further into financial crisis.
Cuts are having to be found across many government departments after Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore promised that there will be no cuts to social welfare rates or any income tax increases in the forthcoming budget.
