€850 dole a week+free legal aid

desaparecidos wrote: »

He "earns" twice as much as me, and a good bit more than twice after I have paid taxes and contributed to the running of the country. He probably lines his pockets even more with illegal activities.

I'm so glad I spend money on 5 years of college to get an education, then I get a job and get to work for 65% of each day, then come home so tired I just watch **** on telly so I can go to bed, get up early and do it all again.

How people can have double figure previous convictions and continue to be given meaningless punishment and free legal aid is beyond me.

****ing dole scum.

How about we have a system where, lets be veryyyy liberal here, 20 strikes - 20 convictions, and you are sent to this new prison. You get a year, but it is a year of damn hard physical labour. breaking stones 12 hours a day or something. you work, you sleep, you eat. not cruel circumstances (there are days I do just that!), but no tv, no luxries.


I'd bet we'd never see conviction number 21.

And it would be cheaper as we could have shorter sentences. And in fairness if you have 20 convictions, other methods of rehabilitation have clearly failed..

omahaid wrote: »

I think this is brilliant. I've seen thread after thread pointing out our generous social welfare system and there are always the few that say "oh, you should try living on it" or "your figures are wrong" or even "links tbh :rolleyes:".

Well, here's your feckin proof. The social welfare system in this country is generous to the point of stupidity, and this case is proof.

No matter what kind of system you set up, if you're giving out free stuff people will try to game that system. Some will succeed. This guy clearly has. Generous dole or not, you'll find people like this in every country. That doesn't mean that the vast majority of dole claimants don't have a legitimate claim.

The only way to avoid situations like this would be to judge each case individually - which would be extremely expensive and open to massive corruption.

The only thing I don't understand is why this guy is allowed custody of his kids. A guy who is in and out of jail every few months and who has a long history of convictions is a very poor role model. There's no way his children can be doing well out of this.

GalKiefer wrote: »

850 euro a week? I'd love to see a break-down of that figure.
Whats unemployment assistance these days - 210? Plus rent allowance - 65? How much does a person get per child?
I'm not disputing it, I'm just shocked at it and am trying to figure out how one person is receiving that much.

He might be on some sort of disability benefit, along with many other benefits. I believe the disability one is quite a bit more than the dole.

Disgusted at this though. Work my ass off 5 days a week and after tax (and the increases in tax etc) come out with a measly €372, which the majority goes on rent, bills & food. UGH this country!

....

I didn't even blink an eye after reading this more like sighed how typical.
It almost seems like the norm when reading about social welfare or the justice system in Ireland.

Surprised there was no mention of what his defence council mentioned (despite his lengthy criminal record). Normally goes along the lines of the following:
-He fell in with a bad crowd
-He's got a drug / alcohol problem
-He came from a dysfunctional upbringing
-Don't stereotype him, he really is a good person at heart who wants to change
-Be lenient he's taking courses X-Y and trying to turn his life around
-Don't punish his family by taking away their father (father of 8???... oh comeon does this person seem like a person you want raising one kid let alone eight?)

whiteonion wrote: »

Why should he be allowed to live so that he can make life miserable for other people in his community? I suggest a rational solution to this problem. Being rational is not the same as being a psychopath.

I think if killing him is your solution when he hasn't done a crime that merits it (as far as we know) and hasn't had a trial, and in a country that prohibits the death penalty, you're kind of psychopathic yeah. At the least, irrational.

He should be allowed to live because people shouldn't be killed by the state, which shouldn't be allowed decide who lives and who dies. I don't think anyone is really qualified to say who lives and who dies.

I'm not saying he's a saint (he sounds like a scumbag), and I'm not saying he should be walking around freely if he's a danger to others, and I'm also not saying he should earn more from Social Welfare than I do from working.

So, what type of job/ salary does a person like this need to take up employment, and how do working people manage on a much smaller income and yet manage to rear their families? Why does a convicted criminal get so well rewarded despite being an obvious menace to society?
A self employed person gets nothing if they have no work, no help from the state, perhaps being a criminal scumbag is the way to go...

omahaid wrote: »

Ah ya, you're right actually, our social welfare system isn't generous enough. Sure, this guy is the exception isn't he?

Yes, he is, or we wouldn't be getting a lovely article to get people all angry about it.

Social welfare should be cut back but this guy is an outlier, not the vast majority.

sollar wrote: »

Don't forget fuel allowance, clothing and footwear allowance, he would even get driving test paid for, medical cards etc.

One thing is for sure in this sorry country..... many many people out there are worried sick about their futures. But the long term dolers like him are among the few that are sitting comfortably by as this recession effects the working poor, the newly unemployed, the NE generation and anyone whose pay has been slashed.

Cuckoo land stuff, perhaps the "Parents" are entitled to foot ware and clothing allowances for their children but i think there are those who will argue these entitlements cover a fraction of the real costs associated with children's clothing. The medical card is a fundamental entitlement to numerous sectors of low paid society, not just people on benefits and its unfair to suggest this being a perk of the unemployed. Any notion of driving tests being paid by department of social welfare is complete horse **** and typical of of the miss information out there and finally yes fuel allowance is available for winter months, guess what, its €20 per week, try and heat any home on that for ****s sake, a bottle of gas is retailing at €31.85 a bag of coal anything up to €10 per bag, lets get real.

I am not defending this scumbag but has predicted the same old mantra about the joys and perks of being on the dole were inevitable because of this article.