The seasonally adjusted rate of unemployment has reached its lowest level in seven years, with 241,400 people signing on the live register last month.
This compares with 244,600 in December and 263,600 in the same period last year, and is the lowest monthly total since February 1991.
The rate of unemployment now stands at 9.7 per cent, the lowest level since 1983, when the current system of calculating unemployment began.
The latest Central Statistics Office (CSO) figures do not take account of the 1,400 redundancies announced at the Seagate plant in Clonmel, Co Tipperary, before Christmas and other recent closures.
The unadjusted figures show a drop from 247,700 to 246,500, in a month when unemployment would normally be expected to rise. According to the CSO the fall in the unadjusted figure is 2,000 more than is normally recorded for this time of the year.
The Minister for Social, Family and Community Affairs, Mr Ahern, said in 17 out of the last 18 months there has been a decrease in the seasonally adjusted figures. He said that all the agencies working with unemployed people must be able to match their needs and skills with the work available for them.
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) said, while the fall in the figures is welcome, the rate of decrease is too slow and the long-term unemployed are still badly neglected.
Meanwhile, figures released yesterday indicate that, on an EU-harmonised basis, Ireland had the lowest inflation rate among the 15 memberstates last year at 1.2 per cent.
