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

The Deputy is quite correct. Unemployment has fallen and employment has risen in every county over the past couple of years but we need to do more to ensure that all parts of the country share in our prosperity and join in the economic growth that is happening. The kind of actions we are taking include investing in infrastructure and in education, as well as making places more attractive for investment. Over the next couple of weeks, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Humphreys, will be travelling to each region of the country with the Action Plan for Jobs for each region to reinvigorate that and make sure that there is employment growth in all parts of Ireland. The Deputy will be aware, from the IDA Ireland figures published a few weeks ago, that more than half of the jobs created in Ireland last year were created outside of Dublin. However, I appreciate there are some counties in Ireland, particularly in the north west, that have not done as well as they should have and that is why we need to focus on them in particular.

See this speech in context