Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take this opportunity to raise the issue of the potential for the north west be developed as a key growth centre; to highlight again the country's two-tier recovery and unbalanced regional jobs growth; and to call on the Government to create a balanced jobs policy by investing in infrastructure and public service jobs in the north west.

I support a national review to examine further redeployment of public jobs and of all State agencies to regional and rural areas. Previous redeployment of Government staff outside Dublin created real economic value and brought long-lasting sustainable employment. Thousands of civil servants from Departments are located in counties outside Dublin. Many of these positions have contributed to sustaining employment levels during the crisis period in smaller towns.

There is huge potential for Sligo and Leitrim to be developed as the key growth centre for the north west. We need to see viability and economies of scale in the north west. Sligo-Leitrim is a large rural region and Sligo is the best located large urban centre to support development throughout much of the north west region. With redeployment and recruitment of public sector jobs, along with effective links to other urban centres throughout the region and improved connectivity, Sligo can become a more effective regional driver, supporting a greater share of population, economic and employment growth in Sligo itself and the wider north-west region. Furthermore, the most recent CSO figures show that Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim are among the counties in Ireland with the highest percentages of vacant dwellings. Many properties could be brought back into use in these regions and this would boost local development and ease pressure on prices and rents in Dublin and other areas experiencing vigorous growth.

There is clear evidence of a two-tier recovery with new job creation heavily concentrated in the greater Dublin area. The reality in the north west is that any improvement is happening at an extremely slow pace. There are serious barriers to job creation in this region that must be urgently addressed. The greater Dublin area accounted for about 40% of total employment gains in 2016. Disproportionate concentration in non-rural areas confirms that Government policy is skewed towards an unbalanced regional recovery. The Small Firms Association, representing over 200,000 businesses, has stated that the recovery has not been consistent regionally or sectorally. Many small businesses are still waiting to feel the upturn. Unequal recovery has been backed up by a Department of Finance paper, which stated that economic recovery in Ireland has been uneven across the country, with the recovery thus far primarily concentrated in Dublin and other urban areas.

There has been a clear failure by Government to create a balanced jobs policy towards the regions, with job creation concentrated nearly exclusively in the capital and commuter belt region. The Government has still a long way to go to reach its 2020 target of ensuring every region's unemployment rate is within 1 percentage point of the national figure. I wish to outline a few statics relating to IDA Ireland jobs. Some 45% of all IDA Ireland site visits in 2016 were in Dublin and 50% of all IDA Ireland jobs were in the capital and commuter belt area. In 2016, 48% of all IDA Ireland jobs were in the capital and commuter belt area. The midlands, north east and north west have been almost ignored, with the number of IDA Ireland jobs there accounting for 2.1%, 2.6% and 2.9%, respectively.

There is a very disproportionate concentration of our economy in one region which is not sustainable. To put this into perspective, London accounts for 20% of the UK's total GDP. The Irish concentration in our capital is over 40%. I appreciate that IDA Ireland does not decide where an industry locates. An industry locates in areas where it can get the things it needs to grow, with factors such as skill base and education being important. The Government, however, can decide where to locate public jobs and there is no shortage of highly skilled, qualified and capable people in the north west who are actively seeking work but the jobs just are not there.

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