THE initiative by the western bishops three years ago to do something to regenerate their region may be forgotten by many people, but now it looks as though it could soon blossom into something big.
A report on the west at the time made the depressing prediction that unless something was done, its decline would continue over the next 20 years, with a 20 per scent drop in population - some 110,000 people - in Connacht and Donegal. This chilling scenario galvanised the Government into setting up a task force. Its recommendations led to the establishment of the Western Development Partnership Board to work in tandem with a council for the west that would largely represent voluntary bodies.
The Partnership Board's main function was to produce an action plan outlining policies and activities needed to halt the west's population decline and bring new life and hope to the 650,000 people in the region. The board's plan was completed last December and presented to the Government, which, I understand, is treating it with great seriousness and will soon be announcing its response.
The man behind the action plan, John Higgins, who is chief executive of the Partnership Board at its Sligo headquarters, is confident the Government will make a major effort to help implement its proposals. "We believe the problem can be solved and that, with a change in policy and a huge change in attitudes, the future of the west is a bright one", he says.
Mr Higgins's own track record lends credibility to his words. He's a versatile man from Ballyhaunis who has been a primary teacher and accountant, holding degrees in economics and English. Before taking on the job in the Partnership Board, he was one of the main movers behind the extraordinary social and economic renaissance that has taken place in Kiltimagh in the past few years.
What happened in Kiltimagh won a Mayoman of the Year award for Brian Mooney, chairman of the local Integrated Resources Development company, where Mr Higgins was manager for five years. Between them and others involved in the enterprise, they brought eight new businesses to the Kiltimagh area and created some 200 jobs. The story is told in Mr Higgins's book, The Kiltimagh Renewal, now being snapped up by communities everywhere as a definitive primer on how local people can use their initiative and resources to create jobs and make a better life.
Details of the "save the west" action plan have not been disclosed but from statements by Higgins in recent months, it's reasonable to deduce that its central premise will be a demand on the State to encourage and help the west to set about achieving its own aims in its own way. Encouragement and help, yes - but no State intervention, as far as is possible. What is envisaged is the ultimate in subsidiarity the State agreeing to yield real power to the regions, the counties and the local communities.
Empowerment of the western populace financially will probably be sought through the setting up of a regional investment institution. Everything will be done to encourage people to develop their own resources so they can generate employment, thus enabling them to continue living in the west. For this to happen, the State will have to reduce what Mr Higgins calls "the massive centralisation" that has caused the country's economic and social ballast to shift disastrously to the eastern seaboard.
There are indications that his action plan will ask the Government to introduce a policy on population trends to counter the continuing influx of people into urban centres, particularly on the east coast, most especially Dublin. You realise that he has a point when you consider that 41 per cent of the Republic's population lives in the five eastern counties while only 9 per cent lives in the north-west. Something sadly wrong there for such a small country.
Much of the population drain is being caused by the peculiar anomaly of well-educated young people having to leave their homes in the west and head east to find the type of jobs that will match their high academic qualifications. Mr Higgins points out that, of any part of Ireland, the western region has the highest percentage of students in third-level education. Despite this, most of the jobs that require high levels of education are being placed on the east coast, where the turnover in educational achievement is only half that of the western region.
These and other aspects of the western situation, no doubt, have been dealt with in the action plan. Over the past 30 years or so there have been many grand schemes to "save the west", most of them quickly disappearing following a storm of talk.
This time seems to be different and there would appear to be a real chance that meaningful action is ready to be taken, not so much to "save the west", but to set it off on a new course under the control of its own people. It will be interesting to see if the Government will show the courage and imagination to take a wholly different approach to the west's problems by allowing the people there to tackle them on their own.
If the Government sets up the necessary structures that would facilitate what amounts to a revolution in devolution, there should be some fascinating times ahead in the west. And if John Higgins's vision becomes reality, the west could indeed be saved - and that would immensely benefit the rest of the country also, particularly Dublin which has become a victim of over-growth.