{"id":678506,"date":"2026-11-08T10:06:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T10:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678506\/"},"modified":"2026-11-08T10:06:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T10:06:09","slug":"simon-harris-denies-that-his-dole-is-not-a-way-of-life-comments-are-controversial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/678506\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Harris denies that his ‘dole is not a way of life’ comments are controversial"},"content":{"rendered":"

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> has denied that his comments on the dole not being a \u201cway of life\u201d are controversial, insisting that he is \u201cnot happy\u201d to have people \u201cleft languishing on long-term unemployment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSocial welfare<\/a> must always be there for people when they need support. That is the mark of any decent society,\u201d the T\u00e1naiste explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut support comes with responsibility, too \u2014 everyone who can work should be expected to make a contribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dole is a safety net, not a way of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time of full employment, it is simply not acceptable for any person to remain on the live register year after year after year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why we want to see a new Pathways to Work plan, the same kind of activation strategy that was successful in previous Fine Gael governments.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are 4.8% of adults on the live register, with the Government repeatedly praising the country for having full employment.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Irish Examiner in Cork<\/a>, Mr Harris argued that he did not just say that \u201cthe dole cannot be a way of life\u201d, but also that \u201cwe\u2019ve got to provide opportunities for those people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve got to break down barriers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you can never write somebody off and say, \u2018Here’s your dole payment, we’re satisfied as a country\u2019. We should never be that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve also talked about anybody who can work being able to make a contribution. I’m talking very much about the long-term unemployed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people in this country, despite having full employment, who haven’t worked in many, many, many years, and we’ve got to work with them. We’ve got to engage with them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SimonSimon Harris on stage at the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in Cork. Picture: Chani Anderson<\/p>\n

Mr Harris has said that the Government had previously engaged with people to get them back to work, and the coalition will \u201cwork on a new pathways to work plan to help\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked if he believed that the comment might be controversial, Mr Harris denied this, saying that \u201csome people want to find controversy in everything\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think these comments are quite straightforward and logical,\u201d the T\u00e1naiste continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re in a country with full employment. Everyone in this republic can make a contribution, should make a contribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we should support people. It’s absolutely true that sometimes there are barriers that exist in society. We’ve got to tackle them. We’ve got to provide opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m not happy for anybody in Ireland to be left behind and to be left languishing on long-term unemployment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should never be satisfied with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n – Louise Burne, Political Correspondent\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris has denied that his comments on the dole not being a \u201cway of life\u201d are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":678507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5658,79,3775,61,60,43,70,11258,52345],"class_list":["post-678506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-irish-examiner-instagram","tag-cork-news","tag-fine-gael","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-simon-harris","tag-social-welfare","tag-video-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=678506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/678506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/678507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=678506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=678506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=678506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}