Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Unemployment has fallen from 15.2% to 6.6% with over 2 million plus people now working in Ireland, spread throughout the regions in every sector.

I was recently accused in Cork of being responsible for clogging up the roads with people going to work which is, I suppose, a challenge of success. I was interested in this initially because this was borne out of an initiative that came from the 2011 Global Irish Economic Forum, with the aim of involving the global diaspora in job creation here when things were very bad. The intention was that if a person's son, cousin or daughter or whoever was working for a firm in Brazil, for example, and if that firm intended to invest in Europe, then that employee would suggest that if the firm was going to invest in Europe, it might consider Ireland. If sustainable jobs in Ireland resulted from this a finder's fee would be made available for the person who initiated that.

It was never intended that the numbers involved would be on the scale of the IDA as it generally deals with foreign direct investment in this county. Many of these would be smaller job numbers in places where the IDA would not normally be in a position to invite or attract jobs. There could be four, ten or 20 jobs, and the number might grow subsequently. That was the intention of the scheme. I remember, arising from the 2011 Global Irish Forum, meeting all of the players involved in Government Buildings and we set that up. It started off in a very successful way.

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