Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sure Deputy Wallace welcomes the figures this week that show the percentage on the live register dropping for the first time down to 10.1%. Hopefully we will see it dropping to single digits in the coming months, something many commentators said would never be achieved. The Deputy mentioned the issue of low pay. The Minister of State at the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Nash, has established the low pay commission and it will report in early summer. As the recovery started, there was a great deal of part-time employment. If one looks at the revenue returns, one can see that salaries have started to increase, which we all welcome. Less and less of overall employment is part-time work and more is full-time work. The improvements we have seen have been around the main urban bases and the Government must ensure this spreads into counties like Wexford, which, as the Deputy said, has been a black spot. Every effort must be made to ensure the economic change that has taken place in the country spreads out beyond the urban areas and that counties like Wexford and Waterford can also share in the benefits.

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