Vol. 467 No. 5
46 Miss Quill asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the measures, if any, he envisages as a means of tackling the high level of unemployment in Cork city, as evidenced in recent figures released by the Central Statistics Office showing a 10 per cent rise in the number of jobless in the past three years. [11751/96]
Live register figures for the past three years do not show an increase of 10 per cent in the level of unemployment in Cork city but in fact show a more modest increase of 5.4 per cent. I am only too aware of the unemployment problem in Cork. The current level of unemployment and in particular long-term unemployment is unacceptable and this Government has singled out the issue for priority treatment. In particular, the long-term unemployment have been targeted for special measures. I have already outlined on several occasions in this House the initiatives involved. These include the development of more friendly taxation and social welfare regimes and the introduction in this year's budget of a series of precisely targeted employment measures: the splitting of the community employment, CE, programme into two distinct targeted options; introduction of a new pilot whole-time jobs option in Dublin, Cork and Limerick; introduction of a new recruitment subsidy scheme called Jobstart; introduction of a new work experience programme called Work-Place; introduction of special measures for 18-19 year olds and the retention of certain benefits for those returning to work.
The establishment of the Local Employment Service represents an important component of the Government's response to tackling long-term unemployment. The service is being established in Cork by Cork City Partnership Limited and the distinctive elements of this service, in providing an individually tailored progression path towards employment for its clients and ensuring that there is well co-ordinated employment delivery service at local level, should yield real benefits in terms of securing employment for a long-term unemployed persons as the service develops. This innovative approach is being launched initially in 14 key areas, including the major unemployment black spots, in other words, targeted where it is most crucially needed.
I am confident that the above measures together with the ongoing work of IDA Ireland, Forbairt and the community enterprise boards in attracting jobs to the country will have a considerable impact on improving-enhancing the employment prospects of unemployed people in Dublin as well as other areas-regions. In this regard I draw the Deputy's attention to the IDA annual report published this week. This report shows record job creation by overseas companies in Ireland during 1995, resulting in IDA Ireland achieving their three year net jobs target one year ahead of schedule.
