Enda Kenny and the Fine Gael party have claimed they will increase dole payments by €27 for a person who becomes newly unemployed.
The new proposal comes as part of the party plans to tackle “chronic joblessness” and “welfare dependency”.
The proposed new welfare policy was revealed by the Taoiseach and junior minister Simon Harris earlier today as they attended the Harry Potter Room at Paypal’s offices in Dundalk. According to reports Fine Gael will actively, introduce new measures that will see jobseeker’s benefit being increased to €215 per week for workers who are out of work fort the first three months. That said rate would then drop back to €200 per week for the following three months before reverting to the standard rate of €188 per week after that period.
The party also say they plan to encourage employers to hire people who have been out of work for more than 12 months. The party will actively give payments to businesses under the JobsPlus scheme increase from €7,500 to €8,500 if they hire someone who has been unemployed for more than 12 months, whilst the payment will increase to €10,000 to €12,000 if they hire someone who has been unemployed for over two years.