This article is from page 6 of the 2007-03-06 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
CLARE is falling behind its Mid- west neighbours in the size of dis- posable income and total income per person new figures reveal.
The figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that dis- posable income per person in Clare has jumped from €8,554 in 1995 to €17,993 in 2004.
However, the report published last week shows that the average dispos- able income in Clare still lags behind that of people living in Limerick and north Tipperary.
The statistics show that the dispos- able income per person in Limerick has climbed from €9,109 in 1995 to €19,500, while in north Tipperary, the average disposable income per person has climbed from €8,998 in 1995 to €18,312.
The figures also show that the aver- age disposable income in Clare falls behind that of the mid-west average of €8,924 in 1995 to €18,828 in 2005.
The figures show that Clare was six per cent lower than the state average while Limerick was slightly above the state average. The figures also show that Clare was falling behind in esti- mates of total income per person.
In 1995, the figures show that the average total income in Clare was 10,602, climbing to €22,402 in 2004, with Limerick’s income fig- ures going up from €11,322 in 1995 to €24,185.
The figures again show that the average total income falls below the mid-west average of €24,185.
The figures show that the Dublin region had the highest disposable in- come per person of the eight regional authority areas, being 11.8 per cent above the State average in 2004.
At county level, the only coun- ties that had an average disposable income per person in excess of the State average were Dublin, Limer- ick, Kildare and Cork.
Green party election candidate, Brian Meaney said last night, “These figures should act as a wake-up call to the State agencies charged with at- tracting inward investment into Clare and helping to create indigenous en- terprise.
It is anticipated that the figures would show that the Shannon-En- nis corridor would show disposable income levels higher than the na- tional average, but that the more pe- ripheral areas of Clare would show a large drop on the national average income.