Border towns have worst jobless rate

BORDER towns are the country’s worst unemployment blackspots, with jobless figures topping 20%. Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures showed unemployment affected one-in-five people in Carndonagh, Co Donegal — the highest in the country, while unemployment levels of 19% in Castleblayney and Dundalk were more than double the national average.

With the release of the figures, the Sinn Féin TD for Louth, Arthur Morgan, called for a new jobs decentralisation strategy and said economic development and regeneration policies promised under the Good Friday Agreement had not filtered through to border regions.

High unemployment levels of 19% in towns such as Castleblayney and Dundalk were more than double the national average, he said.