David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the response. He set out the commission's statutory role, which I accept.

The Minister of State sets out the rationale for putting in place the commission, which is to contribute to balanced regional development to ensure we have social and economic development in the west region, to provide risk capital and also capital investment. I do not dispute that all of these measures are necessary in the west region but the current unemployment levels in the south-east region are five percentage points ahead of the west. I had this conversation with the Taoiseach recently and I have put a Topical Issues question to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation on the matter. It is simply not good enough that unemployment levels are 12.5% in one part of the State when the national level is 8%. It shows that there are very real structural problems in the economy.

A jobs forum which was established for the south-east region by the previous Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is not on a statutory footing. Will the Minister of State with responsibility for regional economic development give a commitment that he will look at this model and replicate it for the south-east?

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