The Western Development Commission (WDC) has published a report outlining the “critical challenges” the Western Region faces, particularly in the areas of housing, connectivity, infrastructure and economic opportunity.
The report, titled Bridging the Divide: 25 Years of Transformation in the Western Region and prepared by Indecon, notes positive changes in the Western Region over the past quarter of a century, but adds that the region “stands at a crossroads” and requires continued investment in order to ensure that “the West and North West fully capitalise on their potential”.
Infrastructure is repeatedly identified as one of the main challenges the region is facing, particularly transport infrastructure, with underinvestment in road infrastructure remaining a “major barrier to regional growth” despite it being the “dominant” mode of transport in the Western Region.
Meanwhile, every county in the region except Donegal is noted as having rail access, which is mainly focused on connecting to Dublin.
“Issues with capacity, journey times, and scheduling persist, particularly on the Sligo-Dublin line. The reopening of part of the Western Railway Corridor to Athenry in 2010 has improved access, but further expansion is needed to enhance regional connectivity,” the report reads.
Air access has seen mixed development over the past two decades, with Galway and Sligo airports closed to commercial flights and passenger numbers at Shannon airport declining from 1999 to 2023, while Ireland West Airport Knock has seen an increase in passenger numbers from from 207,994 in 1999 to 818,000 in 2023.
While the housing supply in the west has increased, the number of new house completions in the Western Region fell from 22% of the national total in 1999 to 11% in 2023, despite the region representing 17.2% of the national population.
The housing stock in the Western Region grew by 46% between 2002 (283,263 houses) and 2022 (414,032 houses), which is slightly above the national average of 45% for the same period. However, Western Region counties combined had under 33% of the number of house completions in 2023 as they did in 1999, compared to a figure for the State as a whole of 70.29%.
Electricity infrastructure is “underdeveloped” according to the report, which means that the region remains “constrained” and its ability to transition to renewable energy limited, despite its “strong potential for wind generation”.
Interventions and investment in support of fostering economic growth are “crucial” given “persistent economic inequalities across the region”. Foremost among these, according to the report, is the finding that the average disposable income per person in the Western Region is €3,000 lower than the national average.
In 1999, the average disposable income for the Western Region was €11,685, which was 11.1% below the State average of €13,146. In 2021, while the average disposable income had increased to €21,326, this was 12.5% below the State average of €24,276.
These challenges persist despite the fact that the population of the Western Region grew by almost 40% (over 250,000 people) between 1996 and 2022.
“While the region has urbanised somewhat in the last 25 years, the big story is how how rural the settlement pattern in the Western Region remains, especially when compared to the rest of the State,” the report says.
In 1996, 72% of the population of the Western Region lived rurally – in settlements of less than 1500 – compared to 55% for the State as a whole. In 2022, that figure had declined to 64% for the Western Region, with just over 20% of the population living in settlements of over 10,000 people.
This compares to 36% of people living rurally in the State as a whole in 2022 (58% live in settlements of over 10,000 people), indicating that rural life remains a predominant part of life in the Western Region, over and above the rest of Ireland.
While in 1996 there were just four cities/towns in the west with a population of over 10,000, there are now seven: Ballina, Castlebar, Ennis, Galway, Letterkenny, Shannon and Sligo.
One initiative singled out for praise is that of the ‘Connected Hubs’ which comes as part of the Irish National Hub Network, a Government initiative to “establish and expand a network of interconnected
Hub facilities throughout the country.
Similarly, educational attainment is noted for its successful development, with a “substantial rise in the number of people completing third-level education”.
“In 1996, only 17.5% of those aged 15 and over had a third-level qualification, compared to 33.1% whose highest level of education was primary or none. By 2022, 43.26% of the region’s population had completed third-level education, close to the national figure of 45.3%, while those with only primary or no education fell sharply to 10.9%,” it says.
The report notes that the Western Region has seen a “significant rise” in remote working. In 2011, 5.7% of the region’s workforce mostly worked from home, higher than the State average of 4.6%, which is considered to have been due to the high number of people working in farming.
By 2022, this figure had nearly doubled to 10.5%, which is now slightly below the national average of 11.2%
The WDC is a statutory body established to promote social and economic development in the Western Region, which is composed of counties Clare, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo.