New jobs and falling unemployment rate show Govt jobs policies working – Doherty

Fine Gael TD for Meath East, Regina Doherty, has today (Thursday), said that the positive CSO Live Register figures show clearly that the Government’s jobs creation policies is working and that the economy is improving.

“In 2012, the unemployment rate was at a record high of 15.1%, this figure has dropped to 11.1% with employment now at its highest level since 2009.

“In Meath’s Mid-West region, the CSO figures indicate that 3,793 more people are back at work than this time last year.

“It is also extremely encouraging that in the past twenty four hours, 690 new jobs have been announced at three locations across the country. The jobs created range from manufacturing to engineering, finance, data science, as well as sales and customer operations.

“These jobs will benefit many regions across the country, in particular Dublin’s commuter belt which includes County Meath.

“The significant amount of jobs created in the last two years is no accident. The Government has committed to creating jobs and to pursuing policies that are focused on job creation. Positive changes in the tourism and construction sectors are a clear example that these policies are working.

“The 9% VAT rate in the hospitality sector and the abolition of the Air Travel Tax has contributed to the creation of 8,000 jobs in the tourism sector over the past year. Overseas visitor numbers are up by 9.4% for the first eight months of 2014 and today we learned that the number of domestic holidays increased by 6.7%.

“In addition, measures introduced to boost the construction sector such as the Home Renovation Initiative have helped bring about an increase of 3,500 jobs in the sector.

“While the growth in the economy is now very real and to be very much welcomed, there are still 370,000 people on the Live Register and too many families have yet to feel the benefit of the recovery. The Government remains focused on creating 100,000 jobs by 2016 and to bringing the recovery to all regions of the country through the new Regional Enterprise Strategy.”