Press Release

Friday, 7 February 2014

Young people to be targeted in latest jobs initiatives – Griffey

Local Election candidate Cillian Griffey has welcomed the announcement by the Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, that, following a special cabinet meeting on jobs, new schemes are being introduced to support our young unemployed. These include a new Entrepreneurship Fund for start-ups by people aged 25 and a Graduate Recruitment Programme.

“Today’s announcements by Minister Bruton are exactly what young people in this country need.  Some of our most successful businesses in Ireland were started up by 20-somethings who had the vision and tenacity to make their business work.  The government’s support may be the kick-start many budding entrepreneurs need to get going – and their success will lead to more job creation.

“The Graduate Recruitment Programme is another welcome move that will hopefully reduce the numbers of graduates leaving Ireland to look for employment elsewhere,” he stated.

“Taoiseach Enda Kenny has promised that 2014 will be the ‘year for jobs’. The new initiatives announced today, along with the 19th consecutive monthly fall in unemployment figures, show that we are making real progress in job creation,” Griffey added.

Local Election Candidate, for the Ennis Municipal District, Cillian Griffey has welcomed a €50 million boost to repair regional and local road surfaces.  The funding was  announced by Minister for Transport, Tourism & Sport Leo Varadkar TD as part of the Government’s Investing in Infrastructure & Jobs plan. Ennis Town Council has received a Block Grant of €339,200 as the regional and local roads grant allocation. 

 “I understand that the work will be carried out this summer and autumn. This funding will be provided directly to local authorities, which can start work on the repairs as soon as they receive the grants,” Cillian explained.

 “This additional €50 million will be a welcome boost for the road improvement programme and will allow repairs and renewal of road surfaces on an extra 600km of roadway. The proposed funding will be allocated to councils for use primarily on the restoration of road pavements (road surfaces as opposed to footpaths). This comes on top of the €350 million which was allocated to pavement works at the beginning of the year.

 “Two successive severe winters have taken their toll on the road network. While resources are limited, there is a risk that roads can deteriorate quite rapidly and are expensive to repair if repairs and maintenance are not carried out. This additional funding will help to address the shortfall in this area.

 “Local authorities have a responsibility to allocate their own resources to road maintenance as they have primary responsibility for these roads under the Roads Acts.  While the Minister has yet to inform local authorities of their allocation of this funding, local authorities are allocated funding based on the length of road in their county as before.   Councils that have a good record of investing their own resources in road maintenance in recent years also receive a top-up.  I will be keeping in touch with the Council on this matter to see what improvements we can expect to see in our roads over the coming months. ”