Partnership Tralee has forwarded documentation to the Minister's Department requesting that a local employment service be provided for the Tralee area. I understand the Minister's Department is carrying out an evaluation of the existing 20 or so local employment service areas in the country and will shortly make his decision on the successful areas of the next programme.
The local employment service plan presented by Partnership Tralee is a response to the identified needs of the people in their community who continue to be economically and socially excluded in a time of unprecedented growth. It is the culmination of a long and thorough process that began with the contacts, relationships and networking initiated in the pre-partnership days of 1992 and through to the present time. The process has resulted in learning for all the partners and this learning is informing the development of new employment services. The plan has been researched and written by people directly involved at all levels in the partnership including the manager, board members, staff, people on sub-committees and individuals who have identified with their goal of dismantling barriers that prevent people from fully participating in society.
The following is a breakdown of unemployment figures in the partnership area. As of December 1997, the total number of people signing on the live register was 4,343; the figures are higher now. The number of males under the age of 25 is 525 and the figure for males over 25 is 2,227. The number of unemployed females under the age of 25 is 375 while the number of females over 25 is 1,220. Obviously there is a major problem in the older group and the long-term unemployed.
It could be argued that the area covered by Partnership Tralee is Ireland in microcosm. There is a long established town with sprawling new coastal and rural areas of rich land but also areas of marginal land. Anything that affects Ireland nationally is reflected in the partnership area like a mirror image. Ireland has the fastest growing economy in Europe with a growth rate of over 8 per cent in 1997. This is mirrored in Tralee with an unprecedented growth in construction in the town of new hotels and apartment blocks. Just as Ireland has a large number of people out of the labour market, so too has Tralee with approximately 2,500 people in the town on the live register. Many more who are not active in the labour market are not counted in that figure.
Although Tralee has developed enormously in the past few years, a large number of people continue to experience social exclusion because of economic disadvantage, as evidenced by the high rate of long-term unemployment. The overall unemployment rate in Partnership Tralee is approaching 20 per cent, which is well above the national average. In certain parts of Tralee the rate is as high as 75 or 80 per cent. There are up to 5,000 people covered by the Tralee social welfare services office at any one time.
These figures also highlight the huge growth in the numbers unemployed over the past ten years and the serious local problems of unemployment look set to continue. Tralee has been hit recently by the closure of Klopman and the running down of Kerry Fashions. Generally, Tralee has received few new industries to replace the ones which we have lost apart from recently opened Kleinhuis, which, although welcome, is a relatively small industry.
The draft development plan of Tralee Urban District Council projects that the workforce in the Tralee urban area alone will continue to grow until the year 2011 by 41.3 per cent. The plan states that to obtain full employment by the year 2011 approximately 2,000 additional jobs per annum will be needed and at the present rate this seems impossible.
In the period from 1980 to 1998 a total of about 2,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Tralee and they were not replaced. These manufacturing job losses were mostly among unskilled labour. They account for the bulk of job losses in the area since 1980. The majority of these workers are still unemployed. The lack of job opportunities, coupled with an increase in the local labour supply and the lack of opportunities abroad, has exacerbated the situation. The people who have not been in regular paid employment since 1980 are now likely to have outdated skills, little work experience and even less hope or confidence in the future.
That is why it is important that a local employment service plan be provided for Tralee to build up skills. The service would work closely with local employers to determine their needs, especially their training requirements. It would also build up the skills and education of this pool of people.
Whereas Tralee may be doing well in the tourism industry and in the services area, it has not succeeded in the manufacturing area. I appeal to the Minister to seriously consider Tralee for a local employment service.
