Sir, – The headline, "Jobseekers to be put to work in local authorities" (Home News, February 21st) demanded an immediate check to see where this was to happen – maybe North Korea or some other such off-the-wall dictatorship? But no, this "initiative" is to take place here in Ireland and what is even more extraordinary is the fact that we are under the governance of a Cabinet in which members of a Labour Party hold a veto.
Aside from the very reasonable view that forcing people to work for a rate of pay that will amount to about half the legal minimum wage is discriminatory – or is a case of the State resorting to slavery – but the denial of the opportunity to protest against this exploitation by the threat to cut welfare supports is repugnant to the values of any democratic State.
This has all the hallmarks of a policy inspired by the views of one William Martin Murphy who was confronted and resisted by none other than the founder of the Labour Party, Jim Larkin. Indeed it was the fact that Murphy organised business owners to deny workers basic conditions that most probably inspired both Connolly and Larkin to consider establishing a political wing to further the interests of workers. As it now appears that the Labour Party has become indistinguishable from its Fine Gael partners in power, how utterly wrong they were. – Yours, etc,
JIM O’SULLIVAN,
Rathedmond,
Sligo.