Sir, – It is perverse for Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton to articulate “A dash for jobs” on behalf of the Government when her own department has over the past 19 months increased the employer cost of redundancy by 250 per cent. Such a policy discourages offers of permanent employment and only serves to increase the casualisation of the labour market.
Would that she and her colleagues study the Agenda 2010 labour market reforms brought in by the German chancellor Gerhard Schröder in 2003. The flexibilities introduced have contributed to the unemployment rate in Germany falling from 11.5 per cent then to 5.3 per cent now. – Yours, etc,
NICHOLAS PRINS,
Ballinlig,
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Beltra,
Co Sligo.