19 March 2015
By Bryan T. Smyth
bryan@TheCork.ie
Anti Austerity Alliance councillor Mick Barry this morning said that the just-released Nevin Economic Research Institute (NERI) quarterly bulletin provides information and analysis that should ring alarm bells in Cork.
The trade union-based institute are claiming that 94% of last year’s newly-created 29,000 jobs were based in the east of the country centred around Dublin with employment stagnating in the Cork-Kerry region and declining in the West and in Border counties.
Cllr Barry called for a major programme of state investment to create new jobs throughout the entire country and to correct the major imbalance caused by the capitalist market.
He said: “The capitalist market is concentrating the vast majority of new investment in counties close to the capital. Furthermore, very many of these new jobs are low paid and with poor working conditions. Both these trends need to be countered. This will not be done by relying on the same capitalist market. It will only be done with a major programme of state investment spread evenly and fairly throughout the country to provide well-paid employment for all who want it.”