Meath Job Creation Strategy Needed

Sinn Féin’s local election candidate in east Meath, Sinéad Burke, has called on Enterprise Ireland and the IDA to develop a strategy to radically redress the emergency unemployment crisis effecting Meath.
According to Ms. Burke, “Meath’s unemployment is increasing at a faster rate than in any other county in the country. 50% of Meath people who have jobs have to leave the county everyday to go to work. 40% of Meath people who shop leave the county every day to do so. These are the highest such figures in the state and they are hammering the rates base of our local authorities.
“Because of this, Meath’s councils have the lowest per capita income and expenditure in the state. This negatively affects front line services of the council with regards roads, housing and amenity development.”
The first-time candidate went on to quote research that Sinn Féin had carried out in relation to jobs investment in Leinster. According to Ms. Burke, Meath gets less job creation investment than any other county in Leinster. “Kildare gets 12 times more job creation investment than Meath, Wicklow gets 4 times more and Louth gets 7 times more. This discrepancy needs to be addressed.”