Long-term unemployment among poorly educated males was a concern of one Presidential candidate. The deafening roar of Celtic job announcements may have drowned the issue, but not the problem.

FAS research on low rates of participation by men on Community Employment (CE) schemes highlights that challenge. So, too, tangentially does research from TCD on the social and gender backgrounds of defendants in Dublin criminal cases. These snapshots combined suggest that all is not well in the world of working men.

"As women secure more and better jobs, men become intimate with the schedules of daytime TV," suggests Dave Hill in The Future of Men. But for long-term unemployed men it's even worse. A modern mantra now insists that the future is female, and that poorly educated men are in free-fall.

A religious brother who lives in an inner city flat complex in Dublin described women there being "more intact" - the men as being "in crisis". The perception seems almost received wisdom that a large proportion of men are being lost to opiate addiction and criminal offending. By contrast women in the same areas are taking up opportunities provided by community development.

A first glance at drug addiction supports the theory of men in freefall. Out of work, early school-leaving and male - these are the attributes of all but some few drug addicts.

As for men and crime, the case has hardly to be made. The few crimes where women outperform men are shop-lifting and forgery - and that's for medical prescriptions!

It's suggested that women in difficulty act out into the care and control of the mental health system, while for men it's the criminal justice system. The prison population rests my case. Even allowing for multiple gate-keeping, it comprises a ratio of 44:1 male to female prison places.

IS the economic situation of poorly educated males actually in decline? At the EU Conference, Gender Equality for 2000 and Beyond, in Dublin Castle in 1996, Dr Gerard Hughes of the ESRI said that women are likely to take almost 70 per cent of new jobs. Men will lose out as a result of being heavily represented in areas such as agriculture and the food and drinks industries, where falls in employment are expected.

Women will pick up new jobs in expanding areas such as management, personal service occupations and clerical work. The female share of employment is set to rise from 34 per cent in 1991 to 37 per cent in this year. Even more significantly, qualifications required for those filling new jobs are also changing, according Hughes. In 1991, 22 per cent of new jobs were filled by people of no second-level education; by 1998 only one per cent of new jobs - about 1,000 - would be filled by people with this level of qualification.

Nearly 40 per cent of new jobs will require some form of third-level education and about 20 per cent will require university education. The problems of unemployment among poorly educated men are likely to become more intractable, he concluded. The descriptive label of poorly-educated males as "human set-aside" of our global economy becomes more apt as this decade advances.

The mushrooming of men's groups in disadvantaged areas, from Dublin to Cork, Portlaoise to Sligo and Louth and the development of a network between them has been one intriguing response. The existence of these groups is little known. Nor is it clear what exactly a men's group is. No theoretical or practical model of development applicable to men of all backgrounds has emerged.

It would certainly not be on the lines of working men's clubs. However, neither would it be all "Iron John", primeval camp fires, totem poles and male bonding. However, the programme of activities of existing groups - topical issues, sports, outings and art - gives a sense of what men's groups are. The traditional social role, an affirming spot for men to occupy, is less available to unemployed men in disadvantaged communities. The question must be whether men are to be the victims of change or whether they can influence the process to become authors of their own destiny. As victims men need only stand still and fail to acknowledge a changing employment market playing out in their lives. These men's groups are designed to interrupt this disabling process - they provide a space in which men can gather, a space wisely funded by the Department of Social Community and Family Affairs.

We must replace the exclusion of yet more high-skill employment with a search for economic activity which includes poorly-educated men. There should be a space where low-skilled education can be a job criterion yet again.

Patrick O'Dea is PRO of the Probation and Welfare branch of IMPACT