Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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56. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the way in which she plans to address the unemployment blackspots in County Limerick as outlined by the recent CSO census data (details supplied). [30622/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS) is the official source of employment and unemployment statistics for the State. Reflecting the impact of Government policy, and the overall improvement in the labour market, the unemployment rate has fallen rapidly since it peaked at 15.1% in Q1 2012. The most recent figure is 6.8% in Q1 2017, and unemployment has fallen by more than half in every region of the country over this period. A strong downward trend continues. In Q2 2016, the unemployment rate as measured by the QNHS was 8.6%. The Census of Population 2016 Summary Results - Part 2, published on 15 June 2017 (based on Census night 24th April 2016) provided an alternative measure of unemployment levels and indicated an unemployment rate of 12.7%. The main difference in the unemployment rate between the two sources arises as the classifications used in the measurement of unemployment differ for both.

In the QNHS, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) classification is used and defines employment, unemployment and the inactive population. Unemployment is defined as persons who, in the week before the survey, were without work and available for work within the next two weeks, and had taken specific steps, in the preceding four weeks, to find work.

The Census uses the Principal Economic Status (PES) classification to establish the labour force situation of the respondent. The PES classification is based on how respondents would describe their present principal status including a status of being unemployed.

Notwithstanding these differences, a strength of the census-based data on employment and unemployment is the provision of data for small geographic areas, and analysis on the comparisons between areas. Based on this, the latest census report has identified the 79 District Electoral Divisions (DEDs) with the highest levels of unemployment as “unemployment blackspots”. The DEDs involved vary greatly in population size (ranging from about 490 to about 8,400) and other characteristics. They are, however, predominantly the DEDs of highest unemployment within larger urban areas; over half of the blackspots, and over half of the population resident in blackspots, is in the cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford.

Government policy to reduce unemployment is twofold. First, through policies set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, to create an environment in which business can succeed and create jobs; and second, through Pathways to Work to ensure that as many of these new jobs and other vacancies that arise in our economy are filled by people taken from the Live Register.

The Action Plan for Jobs 2017 includes actions aimed at stimulating regional growth, including the progression, monitoring and support of the eight Regional Action Plans for Jobs, which through public and private sector collaboration seek to build on existing strengths and assets and identify opportunities within each region, and realise the national Action Plan’s regional employment targets.

As an example of measures to support the regional jobs agenda, additional funds will be made available through the enterprise development agencies out to 2020. In this context, a competitive Regional Enterprise Development Fund 2017-2020 was launched in May 2017, providing funding of up to €60 million to co-finance the development and implementation of collaborative and innovative projects that can sustain and add to employment at a national, regional and county level. This regional competitive fund will support the ambition, goals and implementation of the Regional Action Plans for Jobs. In addition, additional funding of €150m is being made available to the IDA to support its Regional Property Programme and drive job creation in the multi-national sector.

The Pathways to Work 2016-2020 strategy continues to prioritise actions for the newly unemployed and also includes a range of measures for the long-term unemployed. This includes the payment-by-results services of JobPath to engage more systematically with the long-term unemployed; providing targeted wage subsidies under JobsPlus; and reserved places for long-term unemployed jobseekers on employment and training programmes.

In relation to ‘blackspots’ with a high concentration of unemployment, it is important to recognise that DEASP services through Intreo are focused on unemployed individuals rather than on areas.

This means, nonetheless, that those areas where unemployed individuals are most concentrated will also be the areas that receive a greater share of DEASP income support payments and activation and employment services.

Finally, the Census shows that the concentration of unemployment in ‘blackspots’ is related to issues such as low educational attainment; housing tenure; and other markers of disadvantage. Where there is a high spatial concentration of blackspots, such as in Limerick, there are overarching strategies in place. For example, the Limerick Regeneration Plan includes a range of measures to address the multitude of issues present in these areas. More generally, measures are in place across a range of policy fields, such as education and childcare, to focus enhanced support on areas of identified disadvantage.