Carl O'Brien reports on how unemployment rates of more than 30 per cent affect parts of the west.
Father Eamon Ó Conghaile is leafing through Garumna's parish register, counting aloud the number of marriages in the area so far this year.
"Four, five, six . . . we've had six this year," he says with a note of satisfaction in his voice. "There was a time when just one marriage around here would be an occasion, but things are changing."
The outlook for the small community of Garumna should be good. For the first time in decades people are returning back to the area, one of a group of islands linked by road in the Ceantar na nOileán district of Connemara, Co Galway.
The schools are filling up again after fears of closure in the early 1980s. The local football club, which once had difficulty fielding a full squad, now has a host of underage teams. Christenings in the local church are a regular feature. Yet the community is saddled with a statistic no area wants - it is one of the Republic's worst unemployment blackspots.
Census figures published last week showed that Garumna and the adjacent communities of Lettermore and Skannive were fourth, fifth and sixth on a national list of economically deprived area with jobless rates of between 35 and 36 per cent.
The statistics are no surprise to Mr Seán Ó Loinsigh, secretary of Comhairle Ceantar na nOileán, a local district council set up three years ago to promote development and facilities in the area.
With employment in traditional industries such as fishing falling off, older members of the community have found little other work in the area which is about 40 miles from Galway city.
"You have a lot of older men, especially in their 50s, who would be available for work but there isn't anything. They might do a bit of seaweed harvesting, caring for family members or some construction work. The spouse might operate a coláiste Gaeilge in the summer. But statistically, they would be regarded as unemployed."
With its remote location and poor infrastructure, job growth has always been a challenge in such rural communities.
The area has four national schools, three pubs and a community centre. There is little work available locally, apart from some fish-farming and construction work. State agencies such as Údarás na Gaeltachta and the Department of the Community, Gaeltacht and the Islands have been working at strategies to revitalise these areas.
Through packages of grant aid and tax incentives, there have been successive drives to reverse the depopulation and unemployment of the last 30 years. Despite some isolated successes, there has been little budge in the unemployment figures and not everyone agrees that the initiatives have been well targeted or adequately resourced.
"As far as I see it, there is no regional policy at all," says Mr Seosaimh Ó Cuaig, an independent elected member of Údarás na Gaeltachta, from the Skannive area.
"There has been an over-concentration on development in the east coast and a few areas like Galway and Sligo are doing well. The problem is that we're trying to compete with these areas. You can't do that unless you're on a level playing pitch. We have to fight for everything, whether it's roads or broadband. These areas now have to be properly prioritised. That includes inner cities, as well as Connemara."
It's a sentiment shared by many working to create or attract economic development. Much grant aid has been merely a token effort to tackle unemployment, say locals, with a pier developed here or a school extended there.
The effort to attract low-skilled manufacturing jobs to remote regions is now seen as largely misguided as Ireland loses out to more competitive locations such as China and eastern Europe.
Local representatives have sharply criticised the reduction in the numbers employed in FÁS schemes or community employment (see panel), giving many long-term unemployed people little choice other than to return to the dole queues.
"People don't want to be packing boxes in a factory," says Mr Ó Loinsigh. "The key is creating economic activity that matches the skills of local people. Here we must develop our natural resources. The language is a great resource, there is great tourism potential and there are also the traditional industries like fishing and seaweed harvesting."
Ms Lisa McAllister, chief executive of the Western Development Association, a statutory body which promotes economic and social development, also emphasises the need for detailed growth plans.
"The National Spatial Strategy is very clear about the development of hubs and gateways," she says, "but when it comes to smaller towns and areas outside them, it's not as clear by any means. These are key challenges."
What is needed, she says, are specific strategies and increased support for local initiatives and "bottom-up" development, whether it is tourism projects or organic food production.
Planning restrictions, which have seen locals refused permission for new houses, are also causing anger. Mobile homes, surrounded by partially built brick walls - one way of getting around the planning restrictions - are an increasingly common sight.
Locals ask how can jobs be created if they can't get to live among their own community. The man responsible for guiding regional development, the Minister for Community, Gaeltacht and Rural Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, insists he is taking up the challenge.
The answers lie in a multi-pronged approach rather than the old model of trying to attract a single, big factory to an area, he says. "We need a much more radical approach to the old strategy.
"For instance, we have a large proportion of young people going on to third-level now and need to meet their employment needs. That's a huge challenge which didn't exist 30 years ago."
A rural enterprise review is being conducted by his Department to guide this development.
In the meantime, however, the Minister says he has taken steps to improve facilities in the area, such as upgrading the local road to Galway city and setting up a new service in University College Galway, which enables locals to take third-level courses in An Cheathrú Rua, a few miles from Garumna.
He accepts there were problems bringing technology such as broadband to the area, but says a range of pilot projects are under way to bring it to many remote parts.
Despite the bleak statistics, and regional policy failures of the past, there is optimism in Garumna and the adjoining communities.There are plans to bring a gym and childcare facilities to the area and the eventual arrival of new technology could open up job prospects.
"The people are living in a community, they know each other," says Father Ó Conghaile. "The children are safe, which is why so many are coming home. They can let them out of their sights because it's safe.
"Everyone looks after everyone else here. That's the spirit of the community here. It's a good place to live . . . It's a happy place. All we need is bit of investment to get things going."