Seahorse Ireland is one State-aided success story from the west. Gretchen Friemann reports.

When the State's seven-year blueprint for sustainable economic development, the National Development Plan 2000-06, was launched in 1999, its principal aim was to tackle Ireland's creeping regional imbalance that had seen most of the Celtic Tiger's wealth concentrated in the Dublin region.

One of the areas worst effected by this regional imbalance is the west. Two years ago, the Galway West TD and then Minister of State Mr Eamon Ó Cuiv (FF) said the western region was suffering a "cycle of decline" exacerbated by its poor infrastructure links, such as transport and telecommunications, to the rest of the State.

At the same time, a report titled The State of the West: Recent Trends and Future Prospects by the Western Development Commission, revealed the prosperity gap between the east and west was growing.

It showed that more than half the State-assisted jobs in the seven western counties were located in Galway or Clare, while only 6 per cent of new graduates with primary degrees found work in Leitrim, Sligo or Donegal. By contrast 60 per cent of graduates found employment in Dublin, Kildare, Meath and Wicklow.

Since the State of the West report was issued two years ago, the latest figures from the Central Statistics Office show there has been a steady increase in the western region's unemployment rates.

A source within the Western Development Commission said the level of foreign direct investment in the west is expected to show a decrease in the mid-term review of the National Development Plan, due out later this year.

If this is the case, it will indicate that the plan's two-pronged approach to boosting economic growth in deteriorating regions has not worked.

Foreign direct investment has been crucial to Ireland's growth rate over the last 10 years. Under the plan, increased foreign direct investment was intended to complement and develop an indigenous economy-wide enterprise culture, with the help of more funding to start-up companies from State agencies.

How far these objectives have succeeded will emerge in the mid-term review.

And although the news is not expected to be particularly encouraging in relation to the West, the State funding agencies participating in the plan will be keen to point out success stories like last week's Shell LiveWire Innovation and New Technology winner, Seahorse Ireland.

The brainchild of marine biologists, Mr Kealan Doyle and Mr Ken Maher, Seahorse Ireland, based in Connemara, is the first European company to farm seahorses commercially using the natural food source, zooplankton.

Previous attempts to cultivate these strange, serpentine-shaped creatures on a large scale have failed because the food sources were too expensive. Mr Doyle and Mr Maher claim to have solved this problem by growing the naturally occurring zooplankton in their research laboratories.

According to Mr Doyle the breakthrough means the company can step up its commercial production of the seahorse for the lucrative aquarium market.

In its one month of trade last November, Seahorse Ireland - Europe's only seahorse commercial cultivation farm - generated €18,000 worth of sales from aquarium suppliers around the world.

Last year, around 40 million dried seahorses supplied medicinal markets largely in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A further one million are sold to aquarium and curio shops around the world. Chinese people believe seahorses are an aphrodisiac as they are monogamous for life - even after the death of a partner.

Mr Doyle said: "While this may all sound very cute and cuddly, lifelong monogamy is ultimately to their detriment as they don't continue to breed."

And as the World Health Organisation recognises traditional Chinese medicine as a valid form of healthcare there is little chance that the sustained over-fishing of seahorses will be reversed.

Now Mr Doyle intends to promote Ireland as the world leader in seahorse cultivation and conservation.

When Seahorse Ireland was first established in July last year, both Mr Doyle and Mr Maher mooted the idea of selling into the Chinese markets, but this was abandoned because China is primarily a bulk market and more commercial value can be obtained from the global aquarium suppliers.

Such is the demand for aquarium seahorses, that the company says it is holding off on launching its website because it anticipates a "deluge of demand".

"The only reason we did one month of trade was to demonstrate to our investors that this is a revenue-generating project. But the response from people around the world just from a handful of articles has been absolutely massive," said Mr Doyle.

Seahorse Ireland's main source of funding comes from its State sponsors, Údarás na Gaeltachta, Bórd Iascaigh Mhara and the Marine Institute.

Both Mr Doyle and Mr Maher had hoped they would scoop the Shell LiveWire €5,000 award for the best start-up business but a member of the judging panel said: "Although the company was extremely skilled and exciting, its revenue streams and customer bases were still at an early stage."

The awards, which have been running in Ireland since 1999, are open anyone between the ages of 16 and 30 whose businesses have been operating for between three to 18 months.

The winner this year was Barrow Automation, a company that specialises in the installation and maintenance of automation equipment like security gates, car park barriers and automatic and manual telescopic bollards.