(Picture: Keith Wiseman)
TÁNAISTE Joan Burton welcomed the fall in unemployment numbers in Limerick during a low-key visit to the city last Friday.
According to the CSO, all regions saw a drop in unemployment in the last year, with the Mid West recording the largest drop at 13.8 per cent.
Minister Burton welcomed the latest figures while in Limerick to launch her party’s ‘Make It Happen’ campaign ahead of the marriage referendum on May 22.
Speaking at the Clarion Hotel, the Social Protection Minister said that the improved employment situation means a lot of people are going back to work on the back of “very good announcements which have come continuously over the last two years and which have increased significantly in recent times.”
The latest CSO figures indicate that the number of people on the Live Register has fallen to 343,551, a reduction of 45,008 – or 11.6 per cent – since April 2014. Long-term unemployment has fallen to 158,488, a reduction of 19,737 – or 11.1 per cent – since the same time last year.
Asked if the fall in unemployment could be attributed to emigration and employment schemes such as JobBridge, Ms Burton said the Government would be getting the figures in relation to emigration from the CSO quite shortly. “In terms of 2014, all the evidence is in fact that we are beginning to see a return of people to the country. I think parents, grandparents and indeed the GAA have seen this all around the country.
“If you look at the jobs being announced in Limerick a lot of them are very high level jobs for people who are very well educated and I anticipated and hoped that people having gained good experience abroad would now look at returning.
“The overall figure for Limerick city and county in terms of the decrease on the Live Register to April 31 of this year is 16 and a half per cent. That is a very strong fall. It means a significant amount of people, up to 3,000 of them, have left the Live Register and gone back to work.
“The number who are involved in Back To Education, community employment schemes, Tus and JobBridge have stayed very constant over the last number of years. I developed the Tus and JobBridge schemes as ways of getting people different kinds of experience, and they’ve been very successful,” she said.
In relation, to securing a Yes vote in the upcoming marriage equality referendum, she said the response on the doorstep has been very positive.
“We’re campaigning nationally and the response is very good, particularly from younger people who are very engaged. We want to send a message to them that they need to carry that support right to the ballot box on polling day. This is critical.”
Joan Burton,Tanaiste and Minister for Social Protection and Jan O’Sullivan TD Minister for Education and Skills.
(Picture: Keith Wiseman)
Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan agreed that the challenge would be to make sure that people actually go out and cast their vote.
“A lot of people that we’ve engaged with are quite surprised at the idea that it wouldn’t pass. We’re saying it is important to go out and vote,” she said.
The Tánaiste also told Limerick reporters that she believes some of the posters deployed by the No campaign are upsetting and pointed out that surrogacy has nothing to do with the marriage equality referendum.
“Since time began, people have been born into circumstance other than that of a perfect family. People who have been widowed, widowers, lone parents those raised by aunts and uncles.
“Some of the No posters have been very negative and upsetting for people and also focusing on issues that have nothing to do with the referendum. Surrogacy is an issue in Ireland, but surrogacy is mainly an issue for heterosexual couples and couples who are very often desperate to have a baby. It’s one of the avenues they resort to, so that’s an issue that has to be dealt with,” she concluded.
Leaving Limerick, the Tánaiste was met outside the Clarion Hotel last Friday by two Anti Austerity Alliance supporters holding aloft posters with the message “Labour sold out”.
“Come and face us,” one of the protesters shouted.
