The poor can't pay

4 Aug 2009

The INOU is one of a range of Community and Voluntary Sector organisations and Trade Unions that have come together to campaign against the proposed cuts to basic social welfare payments and the national minimum wage. The campaign is called 'The Poor Can't Pay'.

The central message of 'The Poor Can't Pay' campaign is that people earning the national minimum wage or living on social welfare did not cause Ireland's economic crisis and therefore should not be forced to pay for the cost of the recession. This message is very much in keeping with a motion past at the INOU's Annual Delegate Conference in May which called "on the Government to ensure that, at the very minimum the value of all social welfare rates are maintained at the March 2009 rates. It is important that no further reductions or stealth cutbacks are made and we call on the Government to rescind the rent supplement changes, restore the Christmas Bonus..."

The campaign was launched as a joint initiative by the following community and voluntary sector organisations and trade unions: Age Action, Barnardos, CORI, EAPN, Focus Ireland, INOU, Mandate, National Women's Council of Ireland, SIPTU and SVP.

We are now contacting other community and voluntary sector organisations and trade unions to sign up and become members of the campaign. As strength is in numbers we hope you will join us in this campaign and urge you to sign up as soon as possible on www.thepoorcantpay.ie

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Seminar Report.'Linking Education and Training to Employment'

In May of this year the INOU published the 'Linking Education and Training to Employment' seminar report and today we publish the recommendations arising from the overall project which explored unemployed people's experience of education and training programmes and what recommendations they and others wish to progress with policy makers and practitioners. Some of the key recommendations arising from this project include:

Provide a broad range of quality training and education options.
People's participation on training and education courses must be voluntary.
Greater emphasis should be placed on assisting unemployed people in identifying pathways to progression.
Greater integration of employment, education, training and social welfare services.
Ensure that existing employment related services meet the needs of unemployed people.
That there is a greater emphasis on the employers' role in education and training.
To view all of the recommendations click here or on the image of the report above.

 

The Higher Education Authority has recently released details of the 2500 part time undergraduate and postgraduate places being made available for unemployed people. Please follow this link for more information http://www.hea.ie/en/node/1285