merrion street

The Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton T.D., has today welcomed the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office showing that the number of people on the Live Register has fallen by 32,973 to 388,764, an annual decrease of 7.8%.

The Minister said that, combined with this week’s Exchequer figures, which showed a 7.8% increase in income tax year-on-year, the evidence is clear that employment is returning to healthy levels and people are getting back to work.

“Through the Pathways to Work strategy overseen by my Department to reduce unemployment, and the Action Plan for Jobs overseen by my colleague Minister Richard Bruton, we are making steady progress in getting people back to work.

“We have moved from a vicious circle of no investment, no growth and no jobs to a virtuous circle of economic growth, increasing employment and improving tax revenues.

“But it is clear, even with today’s positive figures, that we have a considerable distance to go yet, and it is imperative that we increase the pace of progress we are making. Unemployment stands at 11.8% now, down from a crisis peak of 15.1%, but that is still far too high, and the Government will continue its unrelenting focus on getting people back to work.”

ENDS

Note for Editors

The Department of Social Protection is the lead Department on Pathways to Work, which complements the Action Plan for Jobs, overseen by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. Whereas the Action Plan for Jobs is designed to accelerate the transition to a sustainable, jobs-rich economy, Pathways to Work aims to ensure that as many as possible of those newly created jobs go to people on the Live Register.