Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Approximately 25,000 people left Northern Ireland last year, which is an average of 500 per week.  The unemployment rate in the UK is falling but in Northern Ireland, with Sinn Féin in charge, it increased by 1% last year.  Youth unemployment increased by 155% in Northern Ireland in the past five years.  One in every five people under the age of 24 is unemployed.  House prices have dropped by 50% in the past five years.

  The motion proposes to introduce progressive commercial rates.  In the past four years, Sinn Féin has upped the rates in every district in the North, particularly in the districts in which it is in charge.  Economic activity in the North is the lowest of all the regions of the UK.  Sinn Féin is in charge of Northern Ireland.  

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