Regional Geography - Secondary Economic Activities in the Western Region

Secondary Economic Activities in the Western Region

The basis for a strong secondary or manufacturing sector is the strength of the primary sector. It is also based on the location of the region, its landscape and its population.

The manufacturing sector is poorly developed in the western region, in comparison to much of the rest of the country.


One reason for this is the Western regions workforce. The western region has a smaller pool of skilled workers than much of the rest of the country. In part this has to do with the regions smaller population as less than 10% of the country's population live in the west. In addition there are fewer third level centres of education. While somewhere like the Dublin region has UCD, DCU, DIT, Trinity and many others the West has only UCG and GMIT. International organisations such as Intel, Dell and Microsoft have overlooked the region as a result of this factor.

There is also a smaller pool of unskilled workers. There is only one city in the area and very few towns with a population of over 5000 people. As a result the West's industrial sectors is mainly focused around Galway, the place with the largest and most skilled workforce. 60% of Roscommon's industry is based on food processing. Galway is more focused on high tec industries like computers, medical supplies and chemicals. 17% of GAlway's population are employed in the secondary sector.

The second factor that has held back development of secondary economic activities is the regions poor infrastructure. Traditionally the west has lagged behind other regions in this regard. The Western region does have air, rail, road and port access, mainly service in each of these areas when compared to somewhere like the Dublin region. Until recently the West had no strip of motorway. The M6 finally opened in 2010, linking Galway with Dublin. This allows for easier access of people, raw materials and finished products. There are proposals that more motorway will exist in this region. The western region has air access through both Galway and Knock airports. They both offer internal and limited international flights but both operate on a far smaller scale than Dublin airport.

Another proof that the West lags behind in infrastructural development is in relation to its light rail. While Dublin has had the Luas for many years now, Galway's 'Gluas' is still only in the proposal stage. This lack of development of a local transport network makes industrial development less likely. One of the most limiting aspects is the West's weak electrical grid. Even if power-hungry industries were willing to over look the lack of good transport, they would still be unable to set up in the region, due to limited supply of electricity. 

If the question asks for factors that have affected the development of industry, give both workforce and infrastructure but shorten both to suit (does not have to be a 50/50 balance)

Beware that other factors have affected the development of industry:

• smaller market
• distance from core regions, industry typically locates in core areas
• lack of political power - voice
• one good point is grants are available tax free/low tax incentives

Posting notes on this blog, helping people :)

I am putting up notes that i have, i am trying to only put up the best ones as i want this blog to be useful and give good notes to help people.

If anyone else has notes/sample answers/advice, anything really that you think would be a benefit to other people doing the leaving cert please feel free to comment or message me if you would like me to post it on this blog.

The leaving cert is not a fun time but we all have to do it so we might as well help each other through.

If anyone donates anything to the blog i will say that, i will not take credit for work that is not mine.

Also, do not forget to spread the word about this blog. Tell your friends/family/classmates. Retweet about it on twitter, share the links, lets help as many people as we can :)

I'm back... & Next few posts...

Sorry about the delay, i have been on teachign practice in college so have been crazy busy!! I am back now and should be blogging a lot more on this which will hopefully help coming up to exams :)

My next few posts are going to deal mainly with Irish grammar.
Yes i know, nobody likes Irish grammar! however if you want to get a high mark, especially in honours Irish, you need to know some of it. This is mainly for the essay writing but will be beneficial for everything. If you can write an essay with very little mistakes you are almost guaranteed a good grade, and yes, it is very possible to write on with the grammar perfect you just have to learn the rules.

So over the next few posts i will be concentrating on different parts of grammar. It would take months if i was to go through everything, i dont even know everything there is to learn about it, but i will go through some of the basics that will hopefully be of some help :)

If there is any other parts of irish grammar you are unsure about of want me to post just comment or message me.
Also any questions on anything to do with other subjects, or even just the exams in general of cao or college of anything, just ask, ill try help :)

Studying Tips!

Tip #1 Make a timetable... and stick to it!!

If you make a timetable you will be more organised, and will be very surprised about how much time you actually have and how much you can get done. But you have to stick to it. I used to make loads of timetables and never stuck to them so really it was just wasting time making them.

In order to make it easier to stick to the plan, ensure it is realistic. Dont say you finish school at 4, get food, do work from half 4 until 11, that's just crazy and there is no way you will stick to it, maybe for a day or two a most! schedule in time for eating, for lazying around watching tv or on the internet or going for a walk etc. For example, you finish school at 4, get food, relax for a bit, start work at half 5, work until half 7, take half an hour to watch tv, get a snack, go for a walk, whatever, then work from 8 until 10, that's still four hours studying which is a lot, but taking 2 hours off and finishing at 10.

Also make a list of all your subjects, and all the main topics in each subject. Then when making your timetable, say what you are going to study at each time you intend studying, there is no point wasting half the time when you should be studying deciding what to study!

In the example i gave, there were two two-hour blocks. for that you should take a 5-10 minute break in the middle as it is hard to concentrate for two hours straight and you wont be as focused on what you are doing at the end of it.


Tip #2 Don't forget to have a life!

Yes the leaving cert is important, but it is not the be all and end all! Do not give up your life for it. If you play sports, continue playing them, if you do music, dance, art, drama, or any other hobby, keep it up. it will be better for you in the long run as it will help you relax and it is important to keep doing things you enjoy or you will just get stressed out.

Okay so yeah, if you play sports and have training 2 hours a night, 5 nights a week, i would say cut back a bit, as you do have to work hard as well, but just dont give up completely. You need to keep a balance between th two.

The leaving cert also does not mean you have to stop going out. In fact t is better for you, as you can relax enjoy yourself. Forgetting about the leaving cert and just having fun for a night is great as it will help prevent you from getting stressed out about studying. Say if you want to go out Saturday night, well if you worked from 10-1 and then 2-4 on Saturday then there is no reason you shouldn't go out and enjoy yourself that night. Once again though, like with hobbies above, don't be going out ALL the time, but every so often, there is nothing wrong with it.