In Dail Eireann yesterday (Tuesday) Deputy James Brown quizzed the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Heather Humphreys, T.D. on her plans to address the need for additional jobs and greater investment in jobs in the county of Wexford?
In reply, the Minister said she had made jobs and enterprise in the regions one of her top priorities and stated that her Department and enterprise agencies “are playing a key role in supporting the creation of sustainable and quality jobs in the regions, including County Wexford.”
“County Wexford forms part of the south-east regional action plan for jobs, which aims to achieve a 10% to 15% growth in employment over the period to 2020, as well as ensuring unemployment reduces to within at least one percentage point of the State average,” she said and added; “There are 18 IDA Ireland client companies located in County Wexford employing a total of 2,948 people. Foreign direct investment-supported employment in County Wexford has increased by 10% from 2016 to 2017.”
Deputy Browne was far from impressed by the Minister’s reply;
“The Minister’s answer is deluded. The last Central Statistics Office third quarter figures showed unemployment in the south east surged to 8.6%. The economy is supposed to be booming and we keep hearing announcements about jobs. Unemployment in the south east is going up, however. Wexford has 3.3% of the national population but it only has 1.3% of IDA Ireland jobs. The head of IDA Ireland has said he has no intention of purchasing any land in Wexford for IDA jobs despite the fact that Wexford has the sixth lowest ratio of IDA land.
“We have low-quality jobs as well as a low percentage of our workforce in employment. The jobs that are there are low paid, as we know from the Revenue returns for the south east. IDA Ireland does not even know Wexford exists.
“What will the Minister do about unemployment in the south east and the lack of jobs in Wexford? The unemployment rate is going up significantly at a time when the economy is booming. It shows the Government has zero interest. The Minister had to go back to the first quarter of 2015 to find a statistic to back up her statement. Unemployment is going up but the Government is doing nothing about this in Wexford. That is a fact.”
But Minister Humphreys didn’t agree and stated that unemployment is going down. “The live register figures out today show another reduction in unemployment,” she said.

When Deputy Browne quoted the third quarter CSO figures showing there had been a rise in unemployment in County Wexford the Minister disagreed.
She said; “No, the Deputy (Browne) might have that wrong. The unemployment rate is being reduced. We have a target of 200,000 jobs by 2020, of which 135,000 jobs will be in the regions. We are well ahead with 93% of the target already achieved. People are back at work. It is reflected in the fact that I am getting representations about labour shortages. I am being asked by employers to issue work permits to bring people in from abroad.”
At this stage Deputy Mick Wallace interjected; “That is not true in Wexford. Unemployment is over 15% there.