Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection Regina Doherty is attending a jobs expo in Tipp Town today.
The government led event works in conjunction with the Tipperary Enterprise board with the aim of getting unemployed people in the region back to work.
Over nine hundred jobseekers in the area were invited to attend the event at the excel centre in Tipp Town.
Minister Regina Doherty’s attendance had been described as an indication of how seriously the government was taking the problems of Tipp Town.
The expo has information stands from several local employers alongside Local Community Employment Schemes and the South Tipperary Development Company.
Though the event is aimed at alleviating the economic strain in the struggling town, not all were pleased with it, with some complaining about the manner through which people were invited to the expo.
Protesters from the March 4 Tipp group gathered outside the Excel Centre this morning, venting their anger at what they called the coercive means of forcing unemployed people to come to the event.
March organiser Padraig Culbert claimed the government was putting on a show for the cameras.
However, it seems few people at the expo marched to the beat of the protester’s drum.
These people felt it was a positive opportunity.
Minister Regina Doherty insists that her priority is a thriving busy Tipperary town but isn’t going to make false promises that it could happen today or tomorrow
She denied today’s event was a publicity stunt to promote FG election candidates in Tipperary but Minister Doherty rejected this and insists the forum being set up is the way to address the problems in the West Tipp town