Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. There are always issues about figures in here, such as those we heard about housing in the last while. Is the Minister aware of the South East Economic Monitor? I do not know if the Minister reads it but the latest edition was published a couple of months ago. This publication provides an analysis of the regional economy carried out by independent non-politically affiliated academics. It is independent of the Minister's Department interpretation and independent of my interpretation of what might be happening in Wexford or the south east. One of the points made by the monitor is that between the first quarter of 2017 and the first quarter of 2018 the number of people in work increased by 62,000 nationally, but in the south east the monitor maintains that the number actually decreased. There were 2,400 fewer people working in the south east in that period, and therefore the so-called reduction in unemployment is accounted for primarily by individuals leaving the region's labour force. If that is true it is pretty worrying. I do not know if the Minister is familiar with those statistics but I am interested to hear what she has to say about them.

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