The Friday Interview:  Last June, Údarás na Gaeltachta confirmed that it was in discussions with Silcotec Europe over the loss of about 40 jobs at its manufacturing plant in Carraroe, Co Galway. In Westport, Co Mayo, the printed healthcare packaging company Field Boxmore said it intended to lay off 42 staff. This was followed in September by the news that the Euró Iompú Teo coach conversion company in Gweedore was to close with the loss of 45 jobs.

The spate of jobs losses in Gaeltacht areas in those months made for grim reading, but Pádraig Ó hAoláin, chief executive of Údarás, the regional authority responsible for the economic, social and cultural development of the Gaeltacht, says the agency is creating more jobs than it is losing and the heavy haemorrhaging of jobs experienced in the area at the turn of the century has largely been stemmed.

"A tsunami hit us in the first few years of 2001 to 2003 and we lost a considerable number of jobs in Donegal and Connemara. I think the agency showed its resilience by recovering from that," he says.

Nevertheless, he says that the Gaeltacht region, like other parts of the State, is losing traditional manufacturing jobs to low-cost economies. "There is an ongoing rate of attrition, jobs falling out the bottom of the bucket for a whole range of reasons all the time, some of which the companies themselves have no great control over," says Ó hAoláin.

A key problem was the Gaeltacht's over-reliance on manufacturing industries. "For the previous 30 years, manufacturing industry was the core of the job creation process in the Gaeltacht," says Ó hAoláin.

In the past three years, Údarás has refocused its strategy to decrease the Gaeltacht's dependence on traditional manufacturing. It's a strategy that Ó hAoláin says is paying dividends.

"We did a complete review of our approach to enterprise promotion at that stage," he says. "We built a number of new technology parks and sent our staff out to look for modern service industries. We now have a substantial number of the new jobs coming on stream in modern services and in a wide range of new enterprises that provide attractive jobs for young people from the Gaeltacht to stay in their own places, to be part of their own communities - you're talking software, medical devices, thermoplastics, customer care services and also using the language as a resource for television production companies but also for language enterprises."

But he is aware that foreign direct investment alone is not the panacea for dealing with job losses and creating employment.

"The day of the big, large employers, in the Gaeltacht anyway, is gone," he says. "We've put a lot of resources in the last couple of years in developing and encouraging entrepreneurship at local level."

As well as concentrating on fostering modern services industries, Údarás is also keen to make the most of the natural resources of the Gaeltacht.

"We haven't fully exploited our natural resources - our marine resources or our tourism resources - and we have now set up a number of strategic groups within the organisation focusing on those areas because we feel, from a job creation point of view, there are untapped resources here that can deliver jobs locally, in tune with local needs."

Ó hAoláin expects to see major advances in this area in the coming years. The organisation has set itself a target of establishing six tourism flagship programmes - chief among them a visitor centre at Pádraig Pearse's cottage in Rosmuc. It is hoped that these flagships will create spin-off businesses to cater for tourists.

But with an overall objective of ensuring Irish remains the main language of the region, it begs the question would Údarás not be better off focusing on social and cultural issues, leaving job creation and enterprise to other State bodies such as IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland? Is it duplicating what other State agencies are doing?

"We draw on their resources, we work collaboratively with them because we are all State agency players," he says. "The Gaeltacht areas are designated by Government order. The Gaeltacht has specific needs and on that basis it needs a specific agency to address and focus on those aspects of development, including social, cultural and language, that are not part of the brief of any other State agency. It is unusual in that you have an organisation that has that spectrum of statutory responsibility."

While its stated purpose is to strengthen the Gaeltacht communities, to increase the quality of life of its community members and facilitate the preservation and extension of the Irish language as the principal language of the region, Ó hAoláin is only too aware that economic development underpins all other objectives.

"It is hugely important. The economic development programmes and the enterprise promotion programmes are the platform on which you build communities and on which communities survive."

Community focus is reflected in the agency's board, he says. A unique feature of Údarás is that 17 members of its 20-member board are directly elected from constituencies in Gaeltacht areas.

"We are the only development agency that has an elected board so we have community representation. There is a community voice at the top of the decision-making process. It also keeps the executive very much in tune with what's happening in local communities and what are local community needs."

It could be argued that it could also leave the executive hostage to local politics and the whims of local representatives protecting their own turf.

"We have a good accommodation between the executive and the elected members," says Ó hAoláin. "The elected members obviously want to promote their own areas as far as possible but there is a strong sense of overall collective responsibility as well for what takes place throughout the Gaeltacht.

"One of the things that is very satisfying is that even though they all have particular party colours, there is no element of the operation of Údarás at board level which has party political aspect to it. They don't work like that."

Education and infrastructure development are key elements in the region's economic development, according to Ó hAoláin. Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge, the UCG institute dedicated to pioneering third-level education through the medium of Irish, has established three outreach centres in the Gaeltacht, with courses being funded by Údarás.

The agency is also lobbying the Government on rolling out broadband in the areas under its remit. It has worked with Eircom in upgrading exchanges throughout the Gaeltacht and Ó hAoláin says 60 per cent of the more developed areas now have broadband connectivity.

"Much more has to be done in terms of investment in infrastructure," says Ó hAoláin. "We need to be able to convince companies that there won't be location disadvantages in coming to the Gaeltacht."

ON THE RECORD

Name:Pádraig Ó hAoláin

From:Originally from Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, but spent 25 years living in Connemara and now lives in the Gaeltacht area on the west side of Galway city.

Background:Spent a couple of years teaching in Belvedere, before working with Gael Linn as a language consultant. Moved to Údarás, working in the area of community development and small industries. Then spent seven years as a manager of a co-op on secondment in Connemara. Returned to Údarás as head of information services, a post he held for 15 years. He became deputy chief executive in 2000 and chief executive in 2005.

Interests:Hurling played a large part in his life. He played hurling for Spiddal and trained a number of teams. He also plays golf and is very interested in music and collecting books, particularly history.

Something you might expect:Chairman of a local organisation in Connemara that promotes sean nós singing and traditional music

Something that might surprise: He has written and composed a number of songs that have been recorded by other people.