Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. The Minister has seen my Commencement Matter. A very disappointing article was published during the week regarding the South East Economic Monitor, which showed that the south-east region is being left behind. The monitor was compiled at Waterford Institute of Technology by Dr. Cormac O'Keefe, Mr. John Casey and Dr. Ray Griffin and is actually frightening. As someone who lives in Carlow and as a Carlow person, I know that we could all see the signs. I was very disappointed because one comes into the Seanad every week and hears that the recession is over.

The figures and statistics mentioned in the article and the monitor itself are definitely on the ball. The article notes "While there has been a drop in unemployment the south east is the only region not meeting the Government’s Action Plan for Jobs target" and that "The region has experienced a large drop in unemployment (from 12.5% in Q1 2016 to 9.3%) with 9,900 net new jobs - the first time unemployment is below 10% in eight years". The unemployment significantly relates to the economic decline. It quotes Dr. Griffin as saying:

The South East is the only region (of the eight) not meeting Government’s Action Plan for Jobs target (to have regional unemployment less than 1% of national rate). There is very little variation between the counties in the region.

It also reports that "the government’s Action Plan for Jobs commitment to bring every region’s unemployment rate to within 1% of the national average has been achieved everywhere but the South East" and quotes Dr. Griffin as saying that "We cannot see any Government action aimed at closing that gap".

The article mentions that although "the national policy approach is focused on the crisis being over; the economic crisis is still unfinished business in the South East.". Businesses in the south east still need to be looked at. It quotes Dr. O'Keefe as saying that “The South East region is home to 10.7% of the national population, yet it is clear there is no plan to turn the regional economy around,” and that "Low income, low skills jobs are driving the employment growth; it is pretty simple, the good jobs lost in the recession are being replaced by poorer jobs". That is crucial. That is what happening. The good jobs are being replaced by the poor jobs. The article notes that:

The quality of jobs in the South East is dramatically lower than the national average, and there is no evidence of this improving. This means incomes, disposable income and consumption in the South East is lower than the rest of the country.

I know that in terms of unemployment there are different remits in different areas, but I think it is crucial to bring up the article's contention that "the agencies charged with economic development, IDA and Enterprise Ireland, are underperforming with regards to the South East". It notes Mr. Casey as saying:

They now have specific objectives to promote a more regional distribution to their activities, however we do not see any evidence of this in the South East. We can see what these highly effective organisations can do when they put their mind to it. They need to give more support to their regional offices and target this gap in their activities.

On another piece of the report which I felt was crucial, the articles says that "the South East’s economy will not get back into step with the rest of country while there continues to be a cap on higher education capacity". Carlow has two excellent third level colleges. Mr. Casey is quoted as saying that "It beggar’s belief that €1.7bn was spent on new university buildings over the past five years, and not one of these state supported investments was made in the South East". Not one penny was spent there. We have been looking for that constantly because that it part of our employment problem.

The article also notes that:

Despite steady decreases in the Live Register in Carlow (17.1% year-on-year decrease), Census 2016 shows that Carlow had the third highest rate of unemployment in the country. Carlow is home to 1.2% of the population of the State but to 1.6% of those on the Live Register.

To go back to the IDA, it created 51,793 net jobs across the country but we only got 0.9%. Just to finish on a final quote from the article, "There is also evidence of low job quality as the returns for taxes on work (PAYE, USC, and self-employed taxes) in Carlow are 54% of what one would expect based on population share". That is a massive issue which really needs to be addressed going forward. We in the south east and Carlow are being totally forgotten again.