Social Welfare office in Balbriggan

Date: 07/07/2010
Posted by: Darragh

I can confirm that the new social welfare office in Balbriggan will open on July 19th next, serving the town and surrounding areas.

I have met the Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív and he has confirmed to me that the social welfare office in Mill Street will be open from July 19th. This is very important for the people in Balbriggan and across North Dublin who need access to services locally.

Anyone who has lost their job has been forced to travel very long distances to Coolock or into the city centre to sign on. I am very concerned about the current levels of unemployment but I am pleased that jobseekers will shortly have access to essential services locally.

I am completely committed to ensuring North Dublin attracts as many jobs as possible. I am working closely in that regard with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O'Keeffe who made a significant announcement just this week. Over 400 jobs are being created over the next 12 months by Stream Ireland Ltd which is investing €2.5 million in a new dedicated solution centre in Swords for a leading manufacturer of video game consoles. This followed the DAA's announcement that it's recruiting 500 people needed for the day-to-day running of Terminal 2 and that 400 jobs will be created in the retail units of T2 which opens in November.

There are reasons to be confident in Ireland's job creation prospects. Today we see information from Europe which shows Ireland has the fastest growing economy in the EU and this is likely to continue into next year (Irish economy grew by 2.7% in the first three months of 2010). We are not out of the woods yet but the Government's strategy to return the economy to growth has worked and our plans to create more jobs are working as well.

The Employer Job (PRSI) Incentive Scheme which could create up to 10,000 new jobs in one year is saving employers €3,000 or more when they take on a worker unemployed for six months or more. We are investing almost €40 billion over the next six years in labour-intensive infrastructure - this includes Metro North which will create 6,000 jobs during construction alone.

I welcome the impending availability of social welfare services locally in Balbriggan but I hope we can see less and not more people in need of those services as a result of the efforts we're totally focussed on.