A survey published last night has found that there has been "serious decline" in the populations of some 50 per cent of Catholic parishes in parts of Mayo, Galway and Roscommon over recent years.
The survey of the State's largest diocese, the Archdiocese of Tuam, which comprises half of Cos Mayo and Galway and part of Co Roscommon, concluded that large areas of the rural west were "being `gentrified' rather than `developed', with wealth increasing as population decays".
There is, it says, "a serious need to institute measures which correct this unique situation".
Titled "Quo Vadimus - Ca bhfuil ar Triall - Where are We Going?", the survey was conducted under the direction of Father Micheal MacGreil SJ, of Maynooth College's sociology department.
It was launched at Knock, Co Mayo, last night by the Minister of State for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Mr Eamon O Cuiv, in the presence of Dr Michael Neary, the Archbishop of Tuam. It was commissioned by the archdiocese's pastoral planning group.
The serious decline in population "has been effect and cause of socio-economic under-development in the eastern parishes in counties Galway and Mayo and in the parishes on the western periphery" it found.
Yet parishes near Galway city, Castlebar and Westport had experienced population growth and socio-economic development. This "uneven development further aggravates the plight of the weaker parishes and threatens the actual viability of many local communities".
It proposes project-based development as "a sine qua non for weaker parishes" and supports the campaign for EU Area One status covering the western region. It also suggests that the curriculums at second and third-level should be changed to alert students to the needs of their parishes and reverse the "brain drain".
It recommends that a department of regional development be set up at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in Castlebar and that a module on the needs of local communities be included in the senior-cycle curriculum.
It found tourism alone was not adequate to maintain viable communities in declining parishes. What was required was a proactive State policy of dispensing jobs to places nearest those losing population. Examples of such places given are Achill, Athenry, Ballinasloe, Ballyhaunis, Claremorris, Clifden, Glenamaddy, Knock, Louisburg, Mountbellew, Newport and Tuam.
The survey also found there was a need for some control where the sale of land to people who did not integrate into the community was concerned.
It found that Tuam archdiocese had a population of almost 120,000, 98.6 per cent of whom were Catholic and 78.3 per cent of whom attended weekly Mass. The average national figure for weekly Mass attendance for those over 18 is given as 66 per cent.
It found that a high percentage of elderly people in the archdiocese lived alone. Some 41.1 per cent of the population was under 25, close to the national average.
