Wexford at the back of the jobs queue in South East

A NEW IBEC REPORT AIMED AT LOCAL POLICY AND BUSINESS LEADERS MAKES FOR STARK READING ON A NUMBER OF ISSUES, WRITES DAVID TUCKER

WEXFORD is at the back of the queue in the region when it comes to a range of major growth issues including the number of local and national enterprise office supported jobs as well as the quality of its roads.

The figures are contained in a new ‘Doing Business Locally’ report by IBEC aimed at local policy and business leaders in Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford.

Ibec South East Regional Director, John Farrell, said: ‘ The findings in our report show that we must progress the National Planning Framework without delay to better guide regional population growth and address growing imbalances between Dublin and elsewhere.

‘ The new Framework has the capacity to address the economic imbalances shown in our report, but only if it is underpinned by increased State investment in transport, broadband, water services, health and education infrastructure across the region.

‘If we invest wisely now, the South East will benefit in the years to come and business will create more jobs locally.’

‘Economic growth must be shared across the country. Policy makers must ensure the right conditions exist on a local level to allow the entire country to succeed. In our report, we have ranked key areas of interest to local and national politicians, individuals and businesses alike. This has provided us with a unique insight to the economic and social make up of the local community.’

Key indicators for the South East region include:

· Nine per cent of the population of Ireland lives in the South East

· The South East region is 2nd nationally for Local Enterprise Office-supported jobs per capita, with Carlow 2nd, Waterford 4th, Kilkenny 8th and Wexford 17th.

· Carlow is 5th, Waterford 7th, Kilkenny 12th and Wexford 16th for Enterprise Ireland supported jobs per capita.

· Wexford ranks 14th nationally for IDA-supported jobs per capita; compare that with Waterford which ranks 6th.

· The South East is 3rd for road surface quality, with Carlow 3rd, Kilkenny 10th, Waterford 18th and Wexford 22nd.

In terms of STEM-related graduates, Wexford’s rate of 5.1 per cent puts it in joint lowest place in the country along with Offaly.

‘It is vital that we learn lessons from the data that is openly available in this report. It is our intention that this set of comprehensive indicators encourages public debate and better decision-making locally. ‘We must continuously strive to make the South East the best place to live, work and invest. We must ensure that our cities can continuously compete in the global race for investment, whilst at the same time ensuring more effective development across the region. Adopting comprehensive indicators would change how policy is developed, delivered, managed and monitored on the ground,’ said Mr Farrell.

FOR SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATHS GRADUATES, WEXFORD IS JOINT LOWEST IN IRELAND