63 thoughts on “Anyone Speak Polish?”

    • Work for the lowest rate? Do not pay up. In the hostel I had on hand 200 euros per week, and I was busy from morning to night. First breakfast for guests, then the reception, between the second and third cleaning of rooms, then again on the phone. Kind of fun, meet people from all over the world, but as the knock on the door at eleven o’clock in the evening, then you want them to murder.

      AMEN

      • AND IN CLOSING:
        The psychologist advised therapy. In private it could not afford, the state was the place, but in the group.

        - We live in such times that the work once it is, and once it does not exist. The state should be like cushion: as you slow down, then you land softly and not that make you a wreck, and then send to the therapy – sums up that period. – Here in Ireland, I also have friends out of work. Except that they live normally, like people. That kind of my taxes? At least I see, what they are going.

        Unemployment in Ireland is not afraid.

        As the company went a rumor that the reductions will be, she thought only: “I ​​wish I weighed.” The allowance is higher and then the child could safely raised. He knows he has checked on the Irish side of the employment office (there is a whole list of benefits and the motto: “We help you build a better life”).

        For a doctorate rather not come back.

        Once that even in Poland, in desperation, her friend sold all the notes, and two, that the contemporary Polish poetry has lost its heart.

  4. Hold on here guys. This is someone complaining that working for minimum wage isnt worth it. I agree with her. Minimum wage used to be a job for our kids to do for some pocket money.

      • OR that unemployment is at an all time high, if she quits her job, there’ll be plenty of people just waiting to take her job.

        the dole is about 8k per annum. min wage is about 18k. lets stop having these silly arguments.

        • the dole is more than 8k per annum , free travel, subsidised accommodation, free tv licence , free medical card , free education, free free free i’m sure there are lots more frees… this madness has to stop soon

          • Free travel? Free TV licence? Free education? Do explain please?

            And only a minority actually get to avail of Rent Allowance. The fact that is is for ‘rent’ should be a clue there. If you own a house you don’t get rent allowance, if your landlord doesn’t take it, you don’t get it, if you live with your parents/etc. you don’t get it. And so on.

          • No free travel, or TV licence, education free for all even the wealthiest as is health…and tax deductible if you decide to pay…landlord gets the rent, subsidised or not…property owners get mortgage interest relief, dole’s been cut as has child benefit and almost every other allowance intended to keep families and children from slipping furhter below the poverty line.

    • So 20 billion supporting families and workers is worse than 7 billion on banks that no longer exist. Riiiiight.

      • The state takes in 30 billion per year. It’s about cutting your cloth to fit. People are fixated on the banks when they are not the primary cause of our problems. The welfare budget should be halved and the banks/bondholders should have been told to fuck off.

        • Agree 100%. It’s the key reason a person like me wants to default. It would force the fiscal adjustments overnight which would be painful but at least this culture of people getting paid vast amounts for doing nothing would end overnight.

          • First of all, welfare is not ‘getting paid’. It is an entitlement of almost every person resident in this state. Secondly, budget deficits or surpluses have nothing to do with austerity but everything to do with politics. Thirdly, why don’t you both crawl back under whatever Reagan-shaped rock you came from and think about what you’re proposing: mothers without money to feed their children, workers not getting redundancy, older people dying of cold in their homes. Get knowledgeable about what ‘welfare’ provides and then come back and have a serious discussion with me. Email address with the editor.

  8. I really can’t see why social welfare should be given to non-Irish nationals. Sorry, but not our problem.

    • so i spend years working in italy and through no fault of my own lose my job. despite paying years of social security i get nothing cos im irish……
      duh

    • So if the same article was about an Irish scrounger instead of a Polish one it would be fine?

    • The reason EU nationals are entitled to the dole is because being part of the EU brings social responsibility from all members to all citizens.

      There is no distinction between one EU citizen and another in any EU country. We all have the same rights and benefits.

      • If this is the case, then shouldn’t social welfare benefits be equal across all EU countries?

          • Then the whole thing shouldn’t be an issue. Higher cost of living = higher social welfare, lower cost of living = lower social welfare. It all balances out. Comparing our social welfare to Polish social welfare is like comparing apple to oranges.

      • I’m aware of that. My point is that I don’t think that should be the case. The few Euro the State might get from a year or two taxing a low-wage job shouldn’t entitle a non-Irish national to claim the same benefits from an Irish person who has worked here their whole life, and their families before them for generations. You can call it discrimination on the basis of nationality, and you’d be right, but then so is denying a non-Irish person an Irish passport on the basis of nationality. Personally, I think it’s the Irish Government’s job to look after the interests of Irish people first and foremost.

  9. [quote]Magda doesn’t identify the town in Co Donegal where she lives but she does call it a “s***hole”.[/quote]

      • Yea cos this baying crowd, slobbering for her blood, behind me are getting restless.

    • She doesn’t call that town shithole in the original article. She says that for some people it’s the most beautiful place “like from the postcard” and for some people it is a shithole because there is nothing to do there.
      I’ve read the polish version and she is not bragging how smart she is and how stupid irish system is. She just simply describes her situation.
      She said that half the town left and the other half is on the dole because there are no jobs in the area.

      After reading the polish version I’m of the opinion that the purpose of the article was to slag crippled polish social welfare system rather than ridicule the Irish one.
      Social welfare benefits in Poland equal to about 140€ a month, if you are renting your apartment it will cost you about 200€ -250€ to pay the rent.
      Article shows that in Ireland government tries to make sure that unemployed people can actually make a living off the benefits they receive whereas in Poland the government doesn’t give flying f*ck weather people can survive or not.

      I don’t know why Indo changed the meaning of the original article, maybe they are looking for cheap sensation but the Irisih version does not render the polish version.

  10. Typical Irish Independent racist propaganda crap. Anything to stir up mistrust and encourage negativity and paranoia among people too stupid to read between the lines.

    What about the thousands of Irish people doing exactly the same thing but not even bothering to get out of bed and take a walk in the morning?

    I’d say for every one Polish Magda, there are 100 Irish Marys.

    • +1
      This is a pathetic piece of anti-foreign national sentiment generating ‘journalism’. Indo really loves to scrape the barrel of journalism when it comes to an opportunity to bash foreign nationals. No attempt to address the system that exists whereby someone is better off on the dole and report on the reasons why, just a dangerous bash at a foreigner instead. Pathetic.

      • It was originally posted in an “anti-foreign national” Polish paper. Should they have attempted to address our dole system or were you happy for them to report the facts on the basis that they’re Polish journalists and not Irish?

        • That polish newspaper is NOT ANTI-FOREIGN. in fact they are completely opposite. They are very liberal newspaper, pro european. Get your facts right.

  11. More fodder for the neo-liberals…if the media was to devote a fraction of the time to the hundreds of thousands of people in this country now living on social welfare – because of current government policy – who cannot make ends meet because of that it would make the media seem less like a cheer-leader for the IMF punishment that is being delivered daily. Mr Howlin on the radio this am bragging about putting more people out of work and poor old R Bruton gets to talk-up yet more badly paid call-centre jobs. And RTE has totally lost its ability to interrogate any issue more complex that bingo. It is the banks, stupid.

    • How can you not make ends meet. The levels of social welfare are enormous. Far far higher than in the countries we compete with.

      • Hate to do this but the levels are not enormous…not according to the Oxford dictionary meaning of the word enormous…it’s just bashing poor people which seems to have become a favourite pastime in Ireland. Why not bash up the line for a change but maybe that would require some analysis of what’s going on and then actually DOING something other than bashing poor people.

      • That is why you need to take in other considerations rather than a comparison of headline welfare rates, for example, across the EU (Eurostat) or the OECD. The main one is cost of living. Other factors would include non-monetary welfare provision, such as social housing, healthcare and education. They are many more besides. It is not as simple as comparing monetary payments. This is what lazy S/INDO journos do instead of engaging in real research. (There are also many other reasons why they print commentary like this apart from laziness; connect the dots yourself).

    • Neo liberals? Like Hitchens and all?
      Haven’t heard that one in a while.
      I don’t think you need ideological glasses on to see there’s some serious madness in our welfare system, unless the system is designed to provide an appealing alternative to working for money. (That, it does well. And if that’s what it should do, we’re on a winner.)

      • working where for money…government put 7000plus more peopleout of work..and that is government policy. how many swans are there and how come there were not 450,000 people on the dole three years ago….dole was higher then.

  12. This makes me suspicious from the translation of the Polish you can see that she worked “from morning til night” implying more than 40hours per week but she gets paid only 200euro per week. That’s less than minimum wage. Yet the Irish Independent leave out any details of her previous employment. Why?

    Perhaps those details do not suit the spin the anti “non-national” spin they want to put on this story. I suspect this woman may have been exploited by an unscrupulous employer and I would not be surprised. If that’s the case I don’t blame her.

    The real story here may be how badly we treat people who come to this country to work.

    • this is very true, there are shocking statistics about our preferences for irish workers over non-nationals. if she was on 200 per week, she was WAY less than the minimum wage.

  13. Google Translate…

    First, it comes twice a day at the beach. Along the coast the best thoughts. Beaches is around nine, chooses a different day.

    Second, practicing yoga. Sessions is free, because I had decided with Nina, instructor, that in return will do the massages.

    Magda is doing a basic massage, Hawaiian and hot stone, which she learned at the free course of office work: hot stones moves on the back, until they go down all the tension. It happens that massaged sleep with this bliss.

    Exchanged for other things too. – Now I have an appointment with a carpenter, that I will make a bookshelf, and I will massage his back, because the boy has problems with the spine.

    Recently in the same way acquired frames to images (watch local galleries at lunch), a pair of thick socks (to help in the shop for surfers), and an hour of meditation (Hawaiian massage).

    Thirdly, it floats on the board. For the first week her muscles ached, so that at night she could hardly turn on the other side. Now waiting for the phone every day: how good wave, the boys from the nursery will come after her van. In Donegal you can swim all year round, even in winter.

    As the waves are too big, it grows SurfWatch: watching people surf. Sometimes doing the pictures. The eye is trained, she knows when to press the shutter to capture the best moment.

    Fourth, and finally healthy cooking. – Milk and cheese I buy from a neighbor, vegetables at the market,

    Green Man – a health food store – eco tofu and muffins, or no preservatives.

    Refrigerator will not turn, will keep buying and eating fresh.

    Friends say they lost weight and wypiękniała. – Previously, something ate all the time: and this stress, and problems with the boss. Now, nowhere is no hurry, I have nothing. I live modestly, but in his own way.

    Fifth, furnishes a house. 200 meters, the bottom three bedrooms, upstairs living room and dining room. The owner wanted 110 euro, stood at 95 (in the contract 85), because there is no work nor children, but about four cats and dog did not mention. Down already depicted in blue, in the future there will be a massage.

    - Benefit is there that a man had time to reflect on their lives. For example, I discovered that I no longer want to work for someone. I like to have everything stacked in their own way.

    Sixthly, meets his guardian angel, who’s name is Colette, 40 years old and a mobile phone, which can be called at any time.

    Out of my head

    Unemployment in Ireland is 14.3 percent. About the unemployed care: social welfare (in our office work), which pays benefits, FAS, which does not give money, but advice on how to set up your own business, and sends people to the free training, if you want to learn, and the local office of development, which every unemployed assigns a guardian angel.

    A year ago, when Magda wanted to open on the ground floor massage, guardian angel whispered, not yet. Because as – God forbid – there is appended customers, then what? Bus crashes, lost benefits, and again she will have to toil in a hotel.

    With unemployment comes out of your head, or through the “back to work allowance scheme” (after our “allowance for returning to work”). This is a special offer for those who are on welfare at least two years. Lies in the fact that an unemployed person who opens his own business, for the first year still gets the full benefit, and for another – more than half. The bene bids farewell after two years, when – thanks to state support – the business stand on his feet.

    In December last year, return to work program benefited 927 Poles. With the “back to education” – for the unemployed who want to study – 465th

    Magda was still less than half a year to qualify for the “back to work.” By this time do driver’s license, business, accounting and marketing courses (everything from office work).

    Source: Large Format

    More …

      • Seems to me Magda is using good old bartering to make ends meet. The real plus side of that is the banks, politicians and speculators who destroyed the place and put 450,00 on the dole don’t get their grubby hands on any of it via the tax system. Barter could be the way to go.

  14. I’m Polish too. Working and pay taxes in Ireland from 6 years. My husband too. We have never been unemployed, never get any dole. During that 6 years, we get married, have a child and get mortgage. Everything looks perfect except one thing. If we both would loose jobs, would have better money and more time for ourselfs, because of all doles together. Is it fair?

    So if really immigrants are Irish problem, or your sick system which make people be fat and lazy?

    • Oh it’s our sick system for sure. I don’t blame Magda at all, she is just looking out for herself.

    • What’s stopping you then? The same thing that stops the vast majority of people – they don’t want a life on the dole, even if they are monetarily better off. They think long-term, realise their situation might improve, and even if it doesn’t, going on the dole might mean not working again or, at the very least, losing control of your situation and having difficulty finding a job down the line.

      Yes, some people still choose the dole. And we should remove incentives for them to do so.

      But I’ll be f*ked if we should start pulling the rug out from under a family with both parents who are genuinely unemployed jobseekers (and most likely devastated because of it) because we think it might be a put-on.

  15. wow emotive here.

    keeping the race card out of it because that has sod all to do with the issue of the dole unless you are a racist with a little islander view of the world…

    we do have a mad system where, for some people with only short term vision, being on the dole is more “profitable” than making the effort and going out to work.

    for others, with eyes to the future, they realise that ok, sh1te job now but if they keep slogging, promotion and better wages may result.

    i do not think the dole should be taken away from those who need it but it should be means tested and it should not exceed the minimum wage for everyone in a household.

    there should be no long term reward for having 9 kids and never worked in your life. it should be regarded as a temporary imperfect helping hand not a lifestyle. this way it can be useful when people need it and not a habit to get stuck in.

    it would be far more useful to provide free creche places for the children of those who wanted to get back to work rather than giving their parents £100s per week to stay at home.

    the setting up your own business initiative is a good idea but it does not go far enough – how about tax breaks for other small businesses who share resources like knowledge, computers, admin staff with emerging companies. Everybody wins.

    it is not the regression has not made me think this way, this is how i have always felt.

    when i rule the world things WILL be different! :)

  16. This article is heinous.

    She talks about doing a FAS course in massage in order to set up a massage business (Indo use bizarre “My life is like a Hawaiian Massage” fake quote)

    She speaks of her intense desire to get off benefits – no mention of this all-important quote in the Indo.

    Stoking anti-immigrant fires in a recession by deliberate obfuscation is shocking, even for a rag like the Indo.