Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Government is restructuring county enterprise boards to provide a one-stop shop through the local authority system. This reform will be supported by an allocation of more than €26 million next year which will facilitate this transition and fund schemes to support small businesses in every county of our country.

A key challenge is to ensure new jobs will be created as our economy improves and result in a reduction in rates of unemployment. This will involve the Government providing for better targeting of labour activation places and opportunities to provide valuable work skills to unemployed people, particularly those who are long-term unemployed.

I am providing an additional €11 million next year, and €26 million in a full year, to allow the Department of Social Protection increase by 10,000 the number of placements available across the labour market activation schemes offered by that Department.

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