This announcement yesterday comes following the announcement before Christmas of the closure of the Comerama plant, which employed over 100 people, in Castlecomer. Contrary to the popular perception that the south-east region is doing reasonably well, unemployment figures would suggest that the region, and north Kilkenny in particular, has a higher than average rate of unemployment. Through the years, north Kilkenny was always a location for various types of manufacturing employment. There is still a large population in the Castlecomer area, where traditionally there was employment in the coalmines, but there is a high rate of unemployment in the north Kilkenny region, which is one of the country's black-spots.