Video: FÁS urges 60-year-old unemployed man to emigrate for €250 a week

» Mark Moloney

As the letter was read out, Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell was unable to contain her laughter

A 60-YEAR-OLD unemployed bus driver in Donegal has been encouraged by the Department of Social Protection to leave Ireland and take up a low-pay job in Malta.

The man, a constituent of Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty in Donegal South-West,  received a letter in the first week of March encouraging him to up sticks and move 3,700kms from his native county to the Mediterranean island of Malta, where a €250-per-week bus driver's job had become vacant.

Pearse Doherty read out the letter in the Dáil chamber in which the Department informed the recipient that “while Maltese salary rates are lower than those in Ireland, Maltese workers pay among the lowest taxes in the EU and annual living costs are substantially lower".

The letter also promised a “typically Mediterranean” climate before advising him to forward his CV to the FÁS National Training and Employment Agency.

As the letter was read out, Fine Gael's Olivia Mitchell – who was chairing the debate – was unable to contain her laughter.

Pearse Doherty said:

“This is where the country is at: A 60-year-old person, who is trying to pay his mortgage and who is unemployed, gets a letter from the Department of Social Protection asking him to travel to Malta for a job for €250 per week but he'll get a tan when he's over there! It is laughable in a way but it is very, very sad”.

He went on to say that, in order to deal with the mortgage crisis, the Government must deal with the ongoing unemployment crisis.