A lot of mud has been thrown down the years at the unemployed, and some of it has stuck. But this week they felt the brunt of a sticky bun, which had the novel effect of doing little but leave an embarrassing stain on the hand of the thrower. He was the chairman of the Campbell Bewley Group, Patrick Campbell, who accused some people of using the welfare safety net "as a hammock" and criticised both Government and caring agencies which "love not wisely but too well".

Instead of hitting its intended target, the complaint led to Bewley's having to defend its record of employment as disgruntled employees, past and present, criticised working conditions at its cafes and contested company claims that starting wages averaged about £5 an hour or £200 a week.

"They'd have no problems recruiting people if they just treated their staff better," said one young woman employee who contacted The Irish Times. She said she worked at Bewley's for less than £4 an hour, often 11 hours a day with just two half-hour breaks.

A number of other people complained to the media that they had applied for jobs at Bewley's but never even received a reply.

Now FAS has questioned Mr Campbell's claim that unemployed people were not making themselves available for work. Sean Connolly, senior PRO for FAS, said it had submitted over 500 candidates to Bewley's in response to job vacancies over the past six months.

"We think Bewley's have a case to answer if we send them 500 applicants and they are still complaining. We don't know what's the problem."

He said other restaurant chains, such as McDonalds, didn't seem to have the same problem finding staff. Although McDonalds paid a starting wage of only £3.65 to £4 an hour it had been successful, with the help of flexible practices and a structured promotional scheme, in attracting working mothers and older people who wished to return to the workforce. Up to 70 per cent of the company's management team started out as "crew", the basic kitchen and serving staff.

Mr Connolly said, however that the bottom line was that "vacancies offered at more than £5 an hour you will have no problem filling. If you offer less than £5 an hour you will have serious problems."

Responding to the controversy, the Social Welfare Minister, Dermot Ahern, said his Department had been in direct contact with Bewley's, adding that it had made arrangements to identify unemployed people who would be referred to the company for interview in connection with current job vacancies.

But whatever about the individual case of Bewley's, the debate raises the more general question of where the blame lies for unfilled vacancies, with employers or the unemployed.

It is familiar territory for the representatives of both groups. Only last July they clashed after Irish Small and Medium Enterprises (ISME) published a list of 400 companies which it said were unable to find people to fill vacancies.

The move led to counterclaims from the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed that fewer than 30 of the companies were having recruiting difficulties and many were refusing to take on older or long-term unemployed people.

Mr Connolly of FAS said it was very difficult to know the full story behind such claims unless one could see exactly what vacancies were being offered and how applications were being processed. FAS recently conducted a survey among some small businesses which indicated they wished to recruit a large number of people, "but when we talked to them they said `We only need one person at the moment'."

Despite such disagreement, there is consensus in the market-place that the buoyant economy has made it more difficult for employers to find and keep staff.

IBEC has identified a number of sectors where labour shortages are worst; among them are retailing, software and the meat industry. In the meat industry shortages have got so bad that the Food, Drink & Tobacco Federation has appealed for a more accelerated work permit system for immigrants who could fill vacancies.

Mr Ultan Courtney, director of IBEC's fashion and footwear division, said the retail sector was also finding it extremely difficult to recruit from traditional sources.

However, he said, many companies were overcoming the problem by tapping into new sources of labour and putting resources into encouraging staff loyalty.

"Superquinn, for example, has been successful in taking on people of an older generation who have great life skills, who have experience of managing budgets and mortgages, who have strong interpersonal skills and can relate to customers better than other people of a younger age group."

Marks & Spencer was another company, he said, which had overcome labour shortages by providing an attractive career structure for staff. Employees receive between £4.30 and £6 an hour depending on experience, with 15 hours per week minimum. As a result, the company has one of the lowest turnovers of staff in the business.

"Those who are adapting are proving to be the most successful in getting staff. Those who are standing still are having the worst problems," said Mr Courtney.

Mike Campbell, director-general of the retail group RGDATA, agreed that employers needed to be more flexible. He said the solution to staff shortages was a combination of improved pay, particularly in the services sector, better incentives in terms of management potential and more training.

"There is a challenge to all industries such as catering and retailing to make the job a more attractive career path. The demographics we have show that families are getting smaller and all the children are going to university to be brain surgeons instead of going to work in shops. It's so different to years ago when it was an employers' market."

The increased mobility of workers, he added, was making it harder to keep up standards. It was also acting as a disincentive to training new employees.

This concern was echoed by ISME which, in its pre-Budget submission, has called for increased grant aid to cover employers' training costs as well as the abolition of income tax on the first £10,000 of income.

Shay Fitzmaurice, chairman of ISME's services sector branch, said the cost of keeping staff was increasing all the time, largely due to multinationals which poach workers after they have been trained.

Echoing the words of the Bewley's chairman, he claimed there were thousands of jobs that were not being taken up in the economy.

However, he said the blame didn't lie solely with those who refused to take up a job or worked instead on the black market. "Employers are going to have to be a bit more flexible and take on people part-time and be open to new sources of labour such as working mothers. Lots of employers are already adapting."