Vol. 540 No. 1
148 Cecilia Keaveney asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of jobs created in the north-west region in the past four years; the total number of jobs lost in the same period; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19915/01]
Data in respect of the enterprise development agencies IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, Udarás na Gaeltachta and the county enterprise boards show that, in the period 1997 to 2000, 7,617 full-time and part-time jobs were created in the north-west region comprising counties Donegal, Leitrim and Sligo. Job losses in agency supported firms over the same period totalled 6,856. While the latter figure excludes job losses in county enterprise board firms, the extent of such losses is not significant.
However, these figures do not reveal the full employment picture. The CSO labour force survey and quarterly national household survey show that total numbers at work in the Border, midlands and west – BMW – region increased from 351,000 in April 1997 to 424,000 in November 2000, an increase of more than 20%. During the same period the unemployment rate in the BMW region more than halved, from 10.5% to 4.8%.
Clearly the down sizing of the Fruit of the Loom operations in County Donegal has had a significant negative impact on the figures for the region. My Department and its agencies have been active in efforts to counteract this development and since November 2000 I have announced almost 800 new jobs for Donegal, culminating in the announcement just last week by Prumerica Systems of a 450 job expansion at their Letterkenny facility.
The challenge of achieving balanced regional development is a multifaceted one which is addressed in many aspects of the National Development Plan, 2000 to 2006. These policies, which focus particularly on infrastructure development, human resource development, and the stimulation of productive investment by the private sector, are being implemented across a range of Departments, and encompass the development of a national spatial strategy.
