Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Job creation in the regions is a key priority for the Government. Our ambition has been to create 200,000 new jobs by 2020, of which some 135,000 will be outside Dublin. According to Central Statistics Office figures released last week, we are over 96% of the way there in meeting both targets. We are well on course to meet and exceed them by 2020. Overall, three out of every five new jobs have been created outside Dublin since the Regional Action Plan for Jobs was launched in 2015 and we continue to see an increasing number of positive job announcements throughout the country. I am altogether familiar with the Border region. In the past year the rate of unemployment along the Border has dropped from 6.5% to 5.1%. It is down from a high of 16.1% in 2012 and lower than the State average. The number of unemployed persons in the Border region in quarter 3 of 2018 dropped to 9,500 people from 12,400. This means that there are 2,900 fewer people on the live register in the region. The Government is absolutely committed to continuing to drive job creation along the Border.

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