Deputy Pat the Cope Gallagher has called on the Government and the IDA to prioritise job creation in rural areas and counties such as Donegal.
His comments come following the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation figures recently published, which showed that only 2% of IDA job creation was located and spread over 18 rural counties, compared to 59% of job creation being located between counties Dublin and Cork during the same period of time.
“It is clear from this early stage that the Governments Regional Action Plan for job creation on a countrywide basis is not working and the Government policies are permitting a two tier recovery, with rural areas being left behind,” he fumed.
He added Departmental figures showed that in 2015 Donegal had 2,918 IDA supported jobs, these jobs are essential to the county and are welcomed but more needs to be done to tackle the county’s unemployment rate.
“The Government and IDA now need to prioritise rural areas for job creation, this can only be done by redirecting Government policy to favour job creation in rural areas and counties such as Donegal,” he said.
Deputy Pat the Cope has called on the Government to commit our job creation agencies to achieve specific targets supported by real investment in order to create jobs and employment in counties such as Donegal.
“The regional employment strategy of the present Government now requires to be re prioritised and it needs to be backed up by real action by the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation – with tangible results and real targets in order to deal with this growing divide between rural and urban job creation.
“In the case of Donegal the Government needs to direct the IDA, Udaras na Gaeltachta and other agencies to source and direct employment opportunities to this county, it further requires capital investment in order to provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate future employment opportunities, this will require frontloading capital investment under the 2020 property investment programme,” he concluded.
