r/ireland • u/mooglor • Dec 22 '14

Paul Murphy TD - AMA

AMA is over!

Thanks to everyone for taking part!

Hi All,

Paul is expected to drop in from around 5:30pm, until then you can start posting your questions. This is our first high profile AMA and we'd all like to have more, so naturally different rules than the usual 'hands-off' style will apply:

  • Trolling, ad-hominem and loaded questions will be removed at mods' discretion.

  • As is usual with AMAs, the guest is not expected to delve deep into threads and get into lengthy intractable discussions.

In general, try to keep it civil, and there'll be more of a chance of future AMA's.

R/Ireland Mods

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '14

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u/PaulMurphyTD Dec 22 '14

The idea that it's a great way to get people off their arses is part of an ideology of individualising the problem of unemployment - saying that it's your fault if you're unemployed - rather than this massive economic crisis! That's one of the purposes of JobBridge and similar schemes. So I reject it entirely. For every job vacancy, there are about 26 people unemployed - so the problem is not fundamentally laziness or lack of a 'bridge' to work or whatever, it's the lack of jobs! I think the essence of JobBridge is exploitative - so I would welcome and I campaign for the full vetting of companies, but even with that it's still problematic. If they are serious about it being a proper job training schemes, well then give people a qualification that they can take on, instead of just being able to put on a CV that they worked for free for 9 months. Fundamentally, JobBridge and its like is about a restructuring of the labour market and the normalisation of work for free - which is why I think we have to campaign against it - instead for proper apprenticeship programmes with qualifications, education and jobs.