Vol. 549 No. 3
103 Mr. Ring asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of jobs which have been lost in County Mayo since 1 January 2002; and the number of jobs which have been created in County Mayo in the same period. [6593/02]
The issue of job creation is a day to day operational issue for the development agencies under the aegis of my Department and not one for which I, as Minister, have a direct role. The figures requested by the Deputy on job losses and job creations are not yet available. The Forfás annual employment survey which gives details of all jobs created and lost by the development agencies is carried out in November of each year. The number of notified individual redundancies under the Redundancy Payment Acts, 1967 to 1991, for County Mayo from 1 to 31 January 2002 was 17. No figures are yet available for February. It should be noted that notified redundancies do not necessarily result in actual job losses. The job losses should be seen in the context of the worldwide slowdown, the incidence of foot and mouth disease, the downturn in the ICT sector and the tragic events of 11 September in the United States of America.
The strategies of the enterprise development agencies are now firmly fixed on building, and providing the infrastructure for, high value-added and knowledge-intensive industries in Mayo. There will continue to be challenges in the year ahead and I am confident that, going forward, the Government's policies will be successful in minimising the effects of the difficulties experienced in 2001 with new jobs continuing to be created across a wide range of sectors.
