Partnership plans 4,500 jobs by 2000

THE Northside Partnership plans to place 4,500 unemployed people in jobs over the next four years, having placed 1,500 people in work since 1994.

The four year action plan by the partnership - an alliance of private sector employers, unions and the State - was introduced yesterday by the Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Mr Bruton.

The plan has an operational budget for 1996 of £1 million from EU structural funds. It also has resources for complementary programmes from other EU sources. Altogether £3.87 million has been approved, 75 per cent from the EU and 25 per cent from the Exchequer.

Mr Bruton said that almost half the catchment area of the partnership can be regarded as seriously disadvantaged, with six districts among the most disadvantaged 10 per cent in the country.

Registered unemployment in the area stands at 20 per cent but of these 59 per cent have been out of work for more than a year, according to Mr Bruton.

"This background paints a bleak picture. But the challenge is to make a difference and that is what the Northside Partnership and the Local Employment Service are about," he said.

The action plan will target the lack of formal education in the area. "There is clear evidence that, for each additional year spent in school, the probability of getting employment increases in proportion," said Mr Padraic White, chairman of the partnership.

The key to success was the involvement of the business community, he added.