Controversy as Irish government department offers bus driver job in Malta

The Department of Social Protection in Ireland has been accused of actively promoting emigration after an unemployed 60-year-old received details of a job opportunity in Malta worth €250 a week. The Irish Times under a picture of the old Maltese orange buses, said a letter from the department to the unnamed recipient outlined the job specification as well as offering the carrot of a “typically Mediterranean” climate. The work, it said, entailed driving passenger transport vehicles on routes around Malta. “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 department's letter read. Although the department defended the letter, insisting it kept social welfare recipients informed of all job opportunities, Sinn Féin dismissed it as an “outrageous” move and questioned whether it was policy to actively encourage emigration. “Even the promise of a tan in the ‘typically Mediterranean’ climate could not make this job a viable option for this man,” Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said when contacted by the letter’s recipient. “I find it outrageous that a...