With the continuing growth of e-commerce and the dwindling importance of location for high-tech projects, Udaras na Gaeltachta is throwing its resources behind a strategy which relies less on attracting manufacturers and is more in tune with meeting the expectations of graduates from Gaeltacht areas.

The development agency has commissioned an Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) study which will include a survey of 2,950 households and be followed by 870 individual interviews. The findings are expected to be known in March.

But the preliminary feedback is that the peripheral regions associated with the Gaeltacht areas continue to suffer a brain drain, as graduates and the well-educated seek opportunity in the urban centres. About 1,200 people, mostly young and well-educated, are leaving Udaras areas annually, mostly for work-related reasons.

The preliminary report states that the challenge is "to locate service occupations in the area" while upgrading existing manufacturing industry jobs. "Quality of employment is beginning to replace quantity as an issue," the chairman of Udaras na Gaeltachta, Prof Gearoid O Tuathaigh, said this week.

While there is no model for this type of development, the agency is moving towards equity investment and away from direct grant aid as a means of supporting industry and "hopefully to get some of that money back", according to the chief executive, Mr Ruan O Bric.