More than 6,300 people have been on Jobseeker’s Allowance for over a decade.
Department of Social Protection figures show this comes at an estimated cost of €800 million.
There’s currently an unemployment rate here of 5%, with around 145,000 people unemployed.
Figures provided to Aontú leader Peadar Toibin show 6,329 people have been claiming the dole for 10 years or more.
He’s now calling for a penalty for people who remain on Jobseeker’s Allowance by choice.
Almost 39,000 people have been on it for two years or more, with the figure dropping to around 21,000 for four or more, and 9,000 for eight or more, according to the Irish Daily Mail.
The total expenditure for the social welfare is estimated to stand at €1.8 billion euro this year.
