Remuneration levels don't vary too much between the regions, so that a high tech professional in Dublin is likely to earn at best 20 per cent more than his or her counterpart in Galway or Cork.

The best way to maximise on regional differentials is to work just across the Border, somewhere like Derry or Newry, get paid in sterling and live on this side of the Border, in Co Donegal or Co Louth.

Imbalances between the various regions and Dublin are being ironed out. Enterprise Ireland is running its new regionalisation programme to encourage regional development, while IDA Ireland is also pursuing its regionalisation programme.

Examples of salary remuneration are provided by some of the leading recruitment companies.

CPL Solutions is the contracts company under the umbrella of CPL Resources plc; Garret Roche, director of CPL Solutions, says that the demand for people with IT and engineering skills is biggest in Dublin.

He says that someone seeking a basic package worth £40,000 in Dublin should expect £36,000 in Cork, Galway or Limerick.

"Depending on the skills of the candidate, the variation can be up to 20 per cent. Generally, it would be between 10 and 12 per cent."

He says that these differences reflect a lower cost of living outside Dublin, especially with house prices, so that they have candidates who are prepared to take a drop in salary of up to 20 per cent just to get out of Dublin and move down the country.

Lower regional living costs should mean they retain their standard of living.

Another recruitment firm in the IT sector is Computer Futures, based in Dublin and part of a recruitment group active throughout Europe. Here, the company concentrates solely on IT recruitment for contract and permanent positions.

Tom Walsh, its business development manager, says: "Our concentration up to now has been on the Dublin area, but with the continuous traffic gridlock in Dublin, the cost of houses and their shortage, candidates are now looking for a better lifestyle elsewhere. This has resulted in people relocating to places like Cork, Galway and Limerick."

Mr Walsh says that some people no longer see Dublin as the mecca to work in, particularly people with families.

The cost of housing, travel, shopping, entertainment and parking, not to mention the traffic gridlock, has meant some people looking elsewhere to improve their lifestyle.

He continues: "Twelve months ago it was the fashion to work in Dublin, but now, more and more people are looking at Athlone, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Sligo and Waterford.

"All these towns and cities have grown enormously in the past 12 months and are providing an excellent all-round lifestyle for their inhabitants."

Tom Walsh says that in the IT industry, there is a maximum reduction of five to 10 per cent in the gross salaries of people who relocate to the country, compared to Dublin.

"When you take all the costs associated with living in Dublin, it actually works out cheaper to live in the country."

Annette Nolan, recruitment manager in the accounting division in the Richmond Group, considered the largest privately owned recruitment company in Ireland, says that their recent opening of a branch office in Naas, Co Kildare, is indicative of the growing decentralisation trend in employment.

Towns in Leinster where the group is actively involved in recruitment include Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin and Navan in Co Meath; Kildare, Leixlip, Naas, Maynooth and Newbridge in Co Kildare; Drogheda and Dundalk in Co Louth; Athlone, Kinnegad and Mullingar in Co Westmeath and Bray and Greystones in Co Wicklow.

OECD figures covering 1991 to 1998 show that the population growth in Ireland has been fastest in the counties adjacent to Dublin, while the second fastest growing area was made up of counties Clare, Galway, Limerick and Mayo.

In many towns such as the ones she mentions in Leinster, continues Ms Nolan, job opportunities are still reasonable, while house prices in such areas as Co Meath are still much better value than in Dublin.

House prices are still a very big factor in deciding where people want to work.

She gives some examples of regional salary variations from the most recent Richmond regional salary survey.

A chief financial officer could expect to earn £85,000-plus a year in Leinster, £70,000 in either Galway or Limerick and only £65,000 in Cork.

A Java software engineer with more than three years experience could expect up to £35,000 a year in Leinster, £35,000 a year in Cork, £32,000-£35,000 a year in Galway and £35,000 to £40,000 a year in Limerick.

If you're an HR manager in Leinster, your annual salary could be as high as £50,000, but if you're in Galway, it could be as low as £30,000 to £40,000.

A test engineer in Leinster could expect £20,000 to £28,000 a year but would actually earn more in Galway, £22,000 to £30,000.

A sales manager in fast moving consumer goods could expect £40,000 in Leinster, but up to £35,000 in Galway.

Adrian McGennis, managing director of the Marlborough Group, says that regional variations in salaries are not significant, around 3 to 5 per cent, depending on location.

At PPG Insurance, part of the Marlborough Group, Cathy N∅ Luanaigh, senior recruitment consultant, says that they see no major salary differences between Dublin and the regions.

Currently, they are recruiting experienced commercial underwriters, in Dublin and the north-east and in both cases, salaries and packages are very similar.

A similar view comes from Ian Bewick, managing director of SkillsGroup International, part of the Manpower organisation, who says that there isn't a great deal of difference in salaries on a regional basis, especially in professional areas.

He says: "We are finding people are much more open to the idea of moving to the regions and it should give them more disposable income."

At PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Mark Carter, partner, global HR solutions group and Eugene O'Neill, director of executive resourcing, say that PwC has done some comparative studies across the regions and hasn't found much of a difference in salaries.

But they do say that location can be a deciding factor, even within Dublin. Mark Carter says that if someone living on the southside is offered a job on the northside, even if they are offered £10,000 or £20,000 more in salary, the hassle of getting from one side of the city to the other will put them off.

Neither will people move so easily from the regions to Dublin these days and, adds Eugene O'Neill: "A kind of psychological Dublin weighting has begun to emerge, even though it's not overt or formalised."

While they say that there's still a certain immobility in the national labour market, in terms of people moving from one region to another, more and more employers are now paying relocation expenses. In some cases, they can be very generous.

Given that there's little difference in salary levels between Dublin and the rest of the country, the ideal solution is to move from Dublin to one of the regional cities, take a small cut in salary and get a good relocation package to cover the cost of moving.

While regional differences in salaries are minimal, where the abyss really opens up is in the career you choose.

If you are a managing director anywhere in the country, you can expect to earn between £100,000 and £125,000 a year, according to the SkillsGroup.

If you are in financial or IT work, salary levels can be equally good, provided you manage to hold on to your high tech job. The SkillsGroup salary rating for an IT or technical director is between £70,000 and £95,000 a year.

However, if you are in a low level job, like a shelf stacker in a supermarket, you will bring home about £12,000 a year, according to the Calibre recruitment company. The caring professions do equally badly.

According to Marlborough Group figures, a cardiac technician in a hospital can expect to earn £25,000-plus a year, while a dietician can only expect to earn between £20,000 and £26,000 a year.

The best solution to the regional variations in salary levels is to become a highly qualified and experienced IT specialist and go and telework somewhere on the Dingle peninsula. The leisure opportunities there are wonderful, too!