Rose Conway-Walsh challenges minister on regional unemployment gap

Minister, I want to ask you, what are your plans, or what do you plan to introduce to correct the imbalance in unemployment rates between the regional areas, particularly the north and western regional area, and the urban centres? Minister, despite the song and dance, your department and indeed the Taoiseach today make over the strong overall employment statistics for the state as a whole last year, recent figures have revealed a growing imbalance between the unemployment levels in the urban centres and unemployment in regional areas. So can you outline the measures your department will take to address this? As the Deputy is aware, the Programme for Government sets out a strong enterprise and fiscal framework that prioritises economic and employment growth and competitiveness, with the target to support the creation of over 300,000 extra jobs by 2030. I am pleased to report that one year on, the Irish labour market continues to record sustained employment growth, rising labour for participation, and record job numbers last year, indicative of a resilient performance. In total, over 2.8 million people are now employed in Ireland, with employment up 61,500 on average in the first nine months of last year. While this is a record level of employment, it is the case that the pace of job creation slowed as the year progressed. The overall robust employment performance reflects both the inherent dynamism within the economy and the success of Government policies aimed at supporting job creation, fostering innovation and also providing opportunities across all sectors. Ireland's labour market performance also compares very favourably with our European counterparts. In respect of the regions, this is something that we have watched very closely, and I think it is important to stress that the labour market here is a very open and dynamic one, with a strong increase in labour supply. Furthermore, the prevalence of remote working and commuting patterns complicate comparisons across region. Nonetheless, over the past year, we have seen some increases in regional unemployment rates, notably the Midwest and the border areas where the unemployment rate averages 5.2% and 4.8% respectively, over the first three quarters of 2025. Furthermore, the increases over the year in these areas were above the national average. At the same time, some areas saw decline in unemployment, with the south-west region seeing the unemployment rate averaging 3.8, well ahead of the national average, and the unemployment rate in the west averaging 5.0% over the first three quarters of 2025. Balanced regional development is a Government priority under this department, and I will read the rest into the record. Thank you. Right, Minister, so let's have a look. Now, these aren't my figures. Obviously, they're CSO figures, and they're backed up by the reports done by the Northern and Western Regional Assembly, and I want to acknowledge their work in that as well, because it's very important for us to know the picture that's going on. So, the CSO on regional unemployment covering the end of quarter three 2025 says the state's overall unemployment figure in quarter three was 5.3%. The Northern and Western region, which incorporates the five counties of Connacht, including our own county minister, as well as Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan, had the highest regional unemployment rate in the country at 6.1%. This region has been categorised, you know, by Europe as a lagging region, well behind Ireland's other two regions that have a GDP per capita of almost three times higher. Now, most worryingly, if we drill down further, we will just look at the unemployment rate for the west, which includes our own county of Mayo. It was as high as 6.7%. That's over 25% higher than the figure of the state as a whole. Minister? Yeah. Let me just start, Deputy, by acknowledging the significant buoyance within our labour market. And to your point earlier, it's not a song and dance. It is actual fact that we are very much creating balanced regional growth. And I think that is seen with the high employment and rising participation rates right across the country. And indeed, if you look at 2.82 million people at work at record levels, we continue to implement a good, sound government policy. In regards to our regions, as I said earlier, we have an open and highly mobile workforce. And remote working certainly has enhanced the attractiveness of people working within the regions, which are very much related to urban city companies. And we have seen through many initiatives and we will have the next iterations of the nine regional enterprise plans. And they're bottom up. They will be led by local stakeholders and they will be focusing on key sectors. But also, we will also look at ensuring that we have labour market resilience. And the action plan on competitiveness and productivity, which will also complement the successor to the pathways to work. Our targeted activations to ensure that we have the skills and we have the participation. And we're removing any barriers for those within our regions. Deputy. Minister, so why are so many of the people in our local areas at home then moving to Canada, Australia and to Great Britain? Like, it just doesn't add up. If they had jobs and obviously if they had a place to live, they would be staying at home. So, Minister, I would argue that your government's enterprise, support, structure, investment and skill programmes remain disproportionately concentrated in already prosperous areas, while towns and rural regions struggle to attract sustainable employment. Now, we need concrete action from you and from government to attract and retain employers in regions with persistently high unemployment. We need to ensure that the IDEA and Enterprise Ireland's strategies deliver real regional impact. We need to align education and training programmes with the local labour market needs. And we need to support small and medium-sized enterprises that are the backbone of regional economies. So, warm words and strategies are no longer enough. Regional unemployment requires targeted, measurable and time-bound interventions. We cannot ignore the figures that are in front of us. Thank you, Deputy. Minister, to conclude. And again, Deputy, just to say that we are doubling down on skills and very much part of that. We are working with de Ferris on apprenticeships, on training courses and expanding many of these skills within Springboard, within Skillnet and indeed through digital and green skills. And in regards to the IDEA, I think if you look at their most recent report, the results show that there were over 183 investments, 57% of which were regionally based. And I think that demonstrates how important it is to ensure that we have the jobs outside our main cities. And the facts don't lie. And I think that comes on the back that we are upskilling many, many people and students right across the country. We have a commitment of over 33,000 employees that will be focused on retention of skills. But also the fact that we are investing in regionals and that's through IDEA's ADAPT programme. Thank you, Minister. And we even see in Mayo there's a new advanced manufacturing facility that is progressing in Castle Bar. Thank you, Minister. Thank you.