Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The official measure of unemployment comes from the quarterly national household survey. The most recent data show that unemployment has fallen from a peak of 15% in 2012 to 6.7% at the end of 2016. Numbers at work have increased from 1.825 million at the start of 2012 to 2.048 million at the end of last year, which is an increase of almost 250,000 people. Within the south east, unemployment has fallen from 20.1% to 9.4% over the same period, and numbers in employment have increased by 33,500 to 214,800. Unemployment in the south east has fallen by more than half since my party came into office.

The live register, which captures those registering for unemployment benefits, including people working part-time who draw partial unemployment payments, is an administrative record. While data from the quarterly national household survey are not available on a county level, trends in the live register can give an indication of underlying trends in unemployment.

Overall, the live register in Wexford has fallen by 37.5% in the period from 2012 to March 2017 compared with a reduction of 36.5% nationally. In the year to March 2017, the live register has fallen by 2,112 people, or almost 15%, compared with 12.8% nationally. These figures show that Wexford, although it is a county with high unemployment, is now catching up with the rest of the country and unemployment in Wexford is now falling faster than in the country as a whole.

The Department has ten activation case officers and an activation support team in Wexford. These officers are based across the county and work closely with other stakeholders including the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board to identify suitable training and educational opportunities for jobseekers in Wexford. Case officers in Wexford are currently working with over 1,400 people in identifying suitable employment and training opportunities. Almost 3,000 referrals to training and educational opportunities took place in 2016, and 1,165 have been made to date in 2017, an increase of over 33% on the same period last year.

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Case officers also work closely with employers to ensure that suitable people are matched to appropriate vacancies and in promoting the back to work enterprise allowance for those wishing to pursue self-employment.

Additional activation capacity has also been sourced through the local employment service operated by Wexford Local Development which employs eight mediators across the county.

Furthermore, there are almost 1,000 community employment places available to long-term unemployed jobseekers and over 300 places available on the Tús programme in Wexford.

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