Sir, - The following may explain Dermot C. Clarke's question (October 7th). Many people claiming the dole are working part-time. There is a small percentage working in the black market who intend remaining on the dole. There is always a portion of people on the dole who are between jobs. There is a big proportion who are long-term unemployed and who are not ready for employment due to a lack of confidence and/or skills, including reading, writing and maths.
Community Employment is the major labour market intervention dealing with the people who are long-term unemployed, yet it is being run down. This is despite the fact that CE is effective in getting its clients into employment. From research that I have done on five CE projects, one had a success rate of getting 57 per cent of its clients into employment; the average for the five was over 41 per cent.
If CE is done away with, as looks likely, we will be to a large extent ignoring the needs of this large group of socially excluded people. - Yours, etc.,
Brendan O'Donoghue, Raheen Close, Tallaght, Dublin 24.