A new campaign encouraging people to move to the west of Ireland will be launched by the Western Development Commission (WDC) today.
The month-long "Look West" campaign will involve billboards and advertisements in the print and broadcast media. The Polish and Chinese communities will be targeted with advertisements placed on certain websites.
Gillian Buckley, WDC chief executive, said the campaign would be focusing on the attractive qualities of the west as a location for living, working and setting up businesses. She said the latest Central Statistics Office figures highlighted the massive imbalance between the populations of Dublin and the west.
The figures showed that Dublin city had an average 4,300 people per square kilometre compared with 29 people in the seven counties in the western region.
More than 40,000 people have moved to those seven counties in the past four years.
Ms Buckley said lifestyle and cost of living issues were key factors in the move to the west.
The average house price in the west was two-thirds that in Dublin and statistics had shown that most food and drink was cheaper outside Dublin.
She revealed that more than 8,000 people a month were logging on to the WDC's www.lookwest.ie website. This contains a skills register which aims to build up a profile of the experience and qualifications of people thinking of moving west.
"Over half of the people who register with our website have backgrounds in IT or financial services, and over three-quarters have a third-level qualification or higher," Ms Buckley said.
Interest from workers is not limited to those in Dublin.
"Our analysis of the website traffic shows that, though the bulk of inquiries are coming from Ireland, there's interest from as far away as Australia."
There was also an increase in website visits from the US after the WDC took part in a Fás employment exhibition in New York late last year.
"Many of those who attended the US event had no connection with Ireland but yet were attracted by the lifestyle that the west of Ireland has to offer," she said.
"Traffic to the website shows a huge demand for information about the west and though we can't say how many people have already moved or will move as a direct result of the campaign, we feel that 'Look West' plays a big part in helping them make the decision to move west."
