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The Minister for Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Heather Humphreys TD, has today (Wednesday) welcomed the publication of the Action Plan for Jobs 2017, which she said places an important focus on creating jobs in the regions.

Speaking today Minister Humphrey said:
“The Action Plan for Jobs 2017 includes a number of important commitments which will benefit regional and rural communities, such as the creation of 135,000 jobs outside Dublin by 2020. This will be primarily driven through the 8 Regional Action Plans for Jobs which are ensuring that local and national agencies are working together to drive jobs and investment at a local level.

“My Department is supporting a range of specific initiatives aimed at stimulating regional job creation, such as the Atlantic Economic Corridor. The Action Plan for Jobs 2017 also includes important commitments for the arts and cultural sectors, such as expanding the capacity of our audio visual sector and identifying new locations for Irish artists to show their work through Culture Ireland.

“The APJ 2017 will work in tandem with the Action Plan for Rural Development, which I published last week. The results of the Action Plan approach speak for themselves; the Government set a target in 2012 of creating 100,000 by 2016. We now know that by the end of 2016 nearly 190,000 more people were at work and unemployment rates are more than halved.

“I look forward to working with Minister Mitchell O’Connor to ensure we continue this progress, to the benefit of communities right across the country.”