The Irish Independent carried a story today revealing that more than 700 people have been on the dole for more than 20 years, with a total of 6,633 people on the dole for more than 10 years. In response to this Brid O’Brien from the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed stated that in many cases people faced discrimination when they attempted to re-enter the workforce. Discrimination such as ageism, sexism and “postcode-ism” are apparently huge hurdles for the unemployed to get over. Some people online have been commenting saying that anyone who is long term unemployed should be struck off the list and have their benefits denied. Is there any good reason why someone who is healthy should be unemployed for 10 or 20 years? Are they simply wasters? And do you believe that people are still judged in 2019 for the post code that they live in? Is that just a lazy excuse?