Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As I told the Minister, the figures show unemployment is rising in the county. The Minister spoke about seven site visits, which is the lowest number of visits to any county in the south-east, even though Wexford has the worst unemployment in the south east and the second highest population.

There are ten FDI companies in Wexford, which is low. From 2010 to 2015, there were 12 IDA site visits to Wexford. It was easy to increase from there. We received fewer IDA visits than any other county in the south east, despite our terrible unemployment rate. People do not seem to realise that we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, the highest suicide rate, one of the highest rates of rent supplement payment, one of the highest percentages of people who have no formal primary education, and one of the lowest rates of people completing third level education. The Government must take positive action to deal with it. It is a special case. Wexford, Donegal and Longford are the three most deprived counties.

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