Smyth backs Labour's jobs plan

Issued : Thursday 4 February, 2016

Labour General Election candidate for Dun Laoghaire, Carrie Smyth has said that creating local jobs and reaching full employment by 2018 must remain the number one priority for Dun Laoghaire over the next few years.

She was speaking today as Labour launched its ‘Standing up for Jobs’ plan, which commits to achieving full employment by 2018.

Smyth said: “In recent years, Dun Laoghaire has borne the brunt of the economic downturn but now that the tide has turned, my priority is to continue to ensure the recovery trickles down to our community so that it is evenly spread. 

“In recent times there has been much improvement with hundreds of new jobs at Dell in Cherrywood, continued recruitment at the new Amgen site, expansion of the accounting software firm Sage in Dun Laoghaire and the recent announcement of 70 new jobs at 3D4Medical in Blackrock – but we have more to do."

Also this week we have seen that the national unemployment rate has fallen from a peak of 15.2% to 8.6%.

Under the Labour Jobs Plan, we are committing to reaching full employment by 2018, in other words, there will be a job for everyone who wants one. We will do this by investing in people, in skills and in the businesses that create jobs.

We will invest in people through the creation of 50,000 apprenticeships and traineeships and by further increasing the minimum wage to a living wage of €11.30 per hour.

We will invest in innovation and increase the funding available for research and development to small companies and provide better supports for start-ups.

Labour will also help companies access the funding they need to grow. We will increase the scale of the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland’s lending to SMEs and protect the 12.5% corporation tax rate.