RTE star Jennifer Maguire has admitted her new Benefits Street-style series removed a lot of her prejudices about the unemployed.
The 2FM presenter has worked with stylist Darren Kennedy on The Unemployables, which will air on Thursday.
They work together to help Irish young people who have been on the dole longer than they want, and try and find them jobs.
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But Jennifer admits that before working on the show she thought most unemployed people were just “lazy”.
“I have to say it did get rid of some of my own prejudices,” she said.
“I’m not going to lie but the thought of a 26-year-old who has never worked a day in their life or shown any enthusiasm to do so made me think one thing — how lazy.
“But we are all quick to judge and what I learned in this whole process is people really do surprise you in all kinds of ways.
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“Never judge a book by its cover and there are lots of things we can all do to make ourselves more ’employable’. It was very enlightening to film. I hope it will be to watch.”
But Jennifer admits in her Sun column that it wasn’t easy to film the pilot at all, which is now being turned into a full series.
She added: “I surprised myself how emotionally involved I got and, unlike anything I have ever done, I tended to bring this work home a lot more.
“After all, it’s not like anything else and we are dealing with real people with real issues.”
