Over 1000 less people claiming social welfare in the past year

Live register figures for September released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show another modest improvement in unemployment figures throughout County Meath.

Last month, there were 9,023 people on the live register in the county, down from 10,037 for the same period in 2013.

Men remain in the majority, with 5,255 registered as unemployed. The female figure for September stands at 3,768.

Based on the available data, Navan has the highest proportion of people claiming social welfare in the county at 4,569. This is followed by Trim with 2,805 and Kells with 1,649.

At a county-wide level, just 1,341 are under 25 years of age while 7,682 are aged 25 or older.

According to Meath East TD Regina Doherty, the figures suggest that the government's job-creation policies are working and that the economy is improving.

'The significant amount of jobs created in the last two years is no accident. The government has committed to creating jobs and to pursuing policies that are focused on job creation,' she said.

While welcoming the figures, she said that, with 370,000 people still on the live register nationally, too many families have yet to feel the benefit of the recovery.

Fine Gael TD Helen McEntee also welcomed the figures, noting that hundreds of new jobs have been created at a national level over the past week.

'It is great to see such a strong increase and statistics that are continually improving,' she said. 'Government initiatives such as the Regional Aid Map, which now includes Kells and surrounding areas, will certainly help to grow these figures further.'

She stressed the importance of supporting entrepreneurship as two-thirds of all new jobs created come from start-up companies within their first five years.

Labour's Dominic Hannigan said the number of people out of work has been falling steadily for the past 27 months.

'The government has succeeded in restoring confidence and economic stability to the country,' he claimed. 'Measures like the micro-finance scheme and the credit review office, which help small and medium-sized business access bank loans, are beginning to bear fruit.'

He added: 'Things have been tough but now that our economy is really starting to recover, I have no doubt that jobs, and plenty of them, will soon follow.'

Minister of State at the Departments of Education and Skills and the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Damien English, described the latest CSO figures as good news for the country and for Meath.

Noting that unemployment in the county has fallen by 1,014 in the past 12 months, he claimed the figures show that Meath is benefiting from the labour market recovery and the overall positive changes being seen throughout the country.