29 May 2017
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
Delivering high end jobs in rural Ireland must be a priority – Clune
Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael)
Ireland South MEP Deirdre Clune has welcomed up to 60m in funding that is to be provided by Enterprise Ireland to support the regional Action Plan for Jobs. The new fund will focus on creating jobs in rural Ireland and is open to applications up until August 18th.
Clune said it is vital that we continue to invest in driving growth in rural Ireland.
“We should be looking to develop innovation hubs and business incubation centres in every small town in rural Ireland. Those centres should have fast broadband and well supported and connected networks and support systems.
“This is about providing an eco-system and a culture where we foster innovation and try and get young people to stay in rural Ireland and put their learned skills to good use, creating high end jobs. We can become world leaders in developing areas such as the Internet of Things, food production, software as a service and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence.
“Youth unemployment as of April 2017 was 12.9%, which is a considerable improvement on 5 years ago when it climbed to 30% but it is a problem that continues to impact on rural Ireland.
