Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 109, 111 and 151 together.

The House will be aware that there have been significant job announcements in County Donegal recently with over 210 new jobs announced by Zeus Industrial Products, Letterkenny and PowerBoard, Burnfoot, which are being supported by the Industrial Development Agency and Enterprise Ireland, respectively. This was in addition to 423 jobs I announced earlier this year for the north west region. I assure the House that the State development agencies under my aegis, namely, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, FÁS and Donegal County Enterprise Board, are fully committed to supporting and promoting job creation and job retention in the county.

In addition to recent job announcements, this commitment is also evidenced by ongoing development and support by the agencies for a number of business parks and enterprise centres in County Donegal, which include the completion of the IDA Ireland Letterkenny business park, the provision of a 25,000 square foot advance office building at Windyhall, and the completion of site development work at Ballyshannon for a new facility and a development at Buncrana, where IDA Ireland is working with a local developer to provide new manufacturing and office buildings. In addition to providing support for nine community enterprise centres in County Donegal, Enterprise Ireland has provided substantial support for the expansion of the Letterkenny Institute of Technology business development centre and the development of a marine biotechnology centre.

While the Central Statistics Office does not provide information on unemployment rates on a county by county basis, the quarterly national household survey shows an unemployment rate of 4.9% for the Border region in the second quarter of 2005. Bearing in mind that unemployment in 1995 stood at 11.4%, this represents a very significant positive development.

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