THE economy is improving, but recovery from the worst economic crisis to ever hit the State is still very fragile according to Fine Gael Waterford Minister Paudie Coffey.

The Minister of State at the Department of the Environment with Special Responsibility for Housing, Planning said Waterford in recent months has benefited by a series of job announcements and Capital investments.

“I expect more job announcements and significant capital investments to be made in Waterford in the coming months and years,” he said.

Nationally unemployment rate has fallen to 9.8% down from a peak of 15.1% a little over three years ago.

The manufacturing sector, the services sector and construction sector have all expanded. The overall economy has become the fastest growing economy in Europe once again.

The economic improvements led to a reduction in income taxes and a modest increase in areas such as health and education.

According to Minister Coffey, “Opposition members often call for increased expenditure in these areas; however they never tell us how they would pay for this increase in spending. This is the type of populist politics that we as a society need to leave behind us; it is not credible and it takes the public for fools.

“We cannot return to boom and bust economics or move towards short-term populist politics that would risk the recovery and undo all of the economic progress that we’ve made over the last number of years. We are moving in the right direction and I believe that we will recover all of the jobs that were lost in the economic collapse as long as sensible policies are implemented by a stable government,” he concluded.