698. Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment if he has assessed the wider economic and social impact of the redundancies on workers, families, and communities in Dublin and surrounding areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42702/26]

As Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, growing the labour market and creating economic opportunity in communities across Ireland, including Dublin, is a top priority. The Programme for Government sets out strong ambitions on the growth of Ireland's workforce and my Department has developed a number of strategies and action plans across key employment sectors to drive growth and support opportunity for workers.

The latest CSO Labour Force Survey (LFS) data point to a very high level of employment right across our economy with total employment at 2.8 million persons. The most recent unemployment data, show an unemployment rate of 4.9% in May, relative to 4.6% a year ago. These are historically low rates and consistent with effective full employment conditions.

Nonetheless, I am constantly engaging with the broad enterprise sector under my remit, as well as our development agencies and colleagues across Government, on the impact of any job announcements, including redundancies – not just in Dublin, but right across our economy.

Every job loss is regrettable, and my foremost concern in any redundancy scenario is the potentially impacted employees and their families during uncertain times. Ireland has a strong and dynamic labour market.

In the event of announced or pending significant job losses, the enterprise development agencies, with other support agencies at a local level, move to implement the Job Loss Protocol, as appropriate. This provides a coordinated response by relevant Government Departments and agencies at a local level to support impacted employees. The types of supports that may be provided include:

• Provision of a detailed skills profile; a talent catchment map and timings for when individuals will be available, provided by the company.

• Identification of other employers who may be hiring across IDA and EI client companies.

• Sharing of skills profiles with other companies who may be hiring and direct engagement with HR departments, when appropriate through IDA and EI.

• Briefings by local Department of Social Protection/Intreo officials to impacted employees on social welfare and employment support services to support impacted employees’ transition to new employment opportunities.

• Identification of training and further education opportunities for employees (ETBs; Skillnet; Universities)

• Exploring opportunities to start your own business through LEOs and Enterprise Ireland.

As a Government we are monitoring labour market developments and several of this Government’s initiatives will be central in this regard – not least our ambitious investment plans and the Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity, that I published last year. The Government remains fully committed to improving our competitive position to add more jobs in the future and the Action Plan has a range of measures to address and build a more resilient economy.