Dublin incomes 20% above midlands

WORKERS IN Dublin had more than 20 per cent extra income at their disposal than their counterparts in the midlands, according to statistics released yesterday.

The disposable income of Dubliners was 12.3 per cent above the State average, while the disposable income per person in the midlands is 9.4 per cent below the average, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) which worked on data from 2006.

According to the data, Dubliners had €23,226 at their disposal in 2006, while in the midland counties of Laois, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath, the figure was only €18,730.

In Dublin’s commuter counties of Kildare, Meath and Wicklow, disposable income per person was €21,211. Disposable income per person in the Border counties of Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Louth, Monaghan and Sligo was €18,848. Co Donegal reported a figure of €17,252 for personal disposable income in 2006, the lowest figure both in the Border region and anywhere in the State.

In the west, personal disposable income was an average €19,239 in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon.

In counties Clare and Limerick and in north Tipperary, disposable income per person was €20,050, while in the southeast counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford and Wexford and in south Tipperary, the figure was €19,265. In the southwest – counties Cork and Kerry – disposable income per person was €19,943. The average across the State was €20,678.

The CSO data divides the State in two: between the Border, midlands and western region, where disposable income per person was 8.3 per cent below the State average and the southern and eastern region, which includes Dublin as well as the mid- and southwest, where incomes were 3 per cent above the average.

This 11.3-point gap, according to the data, has remained mostly unchanged since 2005 when the gap was 11.5 and 2000, when it was 11.2. Counties Dublin, Limerick, Kildare and Meath all had higher than average disposable incomes in 2006, while at the other end of the scale counties Donegal, Leitrim, Laois, Offaly, Mayo, Roscommon, Carlow and Kerry all had disposable incomes per person below 90 per cent of the State average.

Cavan, Monaghan, Longford, Westmeath, Clare, Kilkenny, and Wexford all had disposable incomes per person that were between 90 and 95 per cent of the State average.

Chief executive of the group Irish Rural Link, Séamus Boland, said the figures highlighted “how badly people in rural Ireland were left behind at the height of the Celtic Tiger”. He said investment in infrastructure and “the smart spending of the National Development Plan” were needed.

Disposable income per person increased by €6,965 between 2000 and 2006 in Dublin, while in the Border counties it increased by €6,625. In the midlands, disposable income per person increased by €6,328 between 2000 and 2006.

In the west it increased by €6,290, in the midwest by €6,429, the southeast by €6,677 and by €6,728 in the southwest between 2000 and 2006.