Hundreds of people are to lose their places on a FÁS-supported jobs scheme in the autumn.
Participants in the Job Initiative (JI) programme have been told their jobs will not be renewed in September if they have been in the scheme for more than five years.
About 300 people will be affected by the move, which was criticised yesterday by the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU).
FÁS, however, said the measure was necessary to make way for other potential beneficiaries of the scheme. Those who lost their places would be given intensive support in efforts to find jobs on the open market.
Job Initiative is a special support scheme for people aged over 35, who live in a designated partnership area and have been unemployed for more than five years.
The 2,500 participants are paid a weekly wage of €297 by FÁS, and most work in the community and voluntary sector.
Ms June Tinsley, policy officer with the INOU, said the job cuts would have a devastating effect on both the individuals concerned and the communities they worked in.
Services provided by them, she said, would either be reduced or removed.
"This action is contrary to an earlier Government commitment that no JI participant would return to the dole, and is totally unacceptable at a time of rising unemployment."
However, Mr Frank Donnelly, Dublin regional director of FÁS, said the vast majority of community groups which employ JI participants would not be affected.
He said about 90 per cent of those losing their JI posts from September would be replaced so the services provided by them would continue.
It was originally intended, he said, that the scheme would provide three years' full-time work for people who had been long-term unemployed. This had been extended to four and five years in some cases, but FÁS was now saying to the people concerned that they should be able to hold down jobs in the private sector.
He said a "high-support process", including assistance with preparing CVs and contacting employers, was available to all those affected.
Mr Donnelly said the budget for the JI scheme had been cut by between 10 and 15 per cent this year, but this was only a "small factor" in the decision not to renew contracts for participants of more than five years' standing.
Ms Tinsley called on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment to ensure no one's contract was terminated until the individuals concerned had secured alternative employment, undertaken additional training or education, or had completed the high-support process.
An alternative programme should also be put in place, she said, for those who, for a variety of reasons, might be unable to secure employment in the open market.
"In many instances the employment prospects for these participants are poor due to age, ill health and lack of skills or education, so the likelihood of progression is small," said Ms Tinsley.