Hospital vacancies: As a job it doesn't pay badly. A salary in the region of €50,000 is not to be sneezed at. When you add in the fact that you are breathing the purest air in Europe, pristine beaches are on your doorstep and house prices are extremely reasonable, it's absolutely amazing that nobody apparently wants the post of radiographer in Belmullet, Co Mayo.
There were raised eyebrows last week when it emerged that not a single application was received for the post of radiographer in Belmullet hospital.
Professionals cannot claim they did not know about the vacancy. It was advertised three times over the past 12 months nationally.
In the absence of any interest, HSE West, which employs approximately 100 radiographers in hospitals in counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon, had to settle for a compromise, as it did with Clifden, Co Galway where there was a similar difficulty regarding radiography services.
Clifden is now being served from University College Hospital in Galway city, just like Belmullet will be served from Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar.
Every Tuesday and Friday, a Castlebar-based radiotherapist now travels to Belmullet, 80km (50 miles) away, to provide routine chest X-rays. The Erris community of about 12,000 people is heaving a collective sigh of relief.
The 160km (100 miles) return journey, down a bumpy and winding road to Castlebar for a routine chest X-ray lasting about five minutes, is now a thing of the past.
Asked why no radiographer would want to work either in Clifden or Belmullet, both about 80km from Galway city and Castlebar respectively, a source replied: "Isolation is part of the answer. The other part is the question of collegiality. Professionals don't like to work on their own without colleagues."
Derek Reilly, president of Belmullet Chamber of Commerce, predicts that in the future, professionals will be clamouring to live in the area.
He said: "So much has happened in the past year that it's mind boggling.
"A new €6.5 million civic centre has been built at the old GAA pitch in the town centre. There's a new courthouse, new county council offices, a new arts centre with a cinema and a new playground."
Local auctioneer and garage owner Cllr Gerry Coyle, who took over as Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council last week, said the lack of a leisure centre and a swimming pool could no longer be identified as deficiencies in Belmullet.
Both facilities are incorporated into the new Broadhaven Bay Hotel which overlooks the estuary on the scenic approach to the town.
And broadband, that must-have rural community accessory of the new millennium, is now available in the town centre.
What more could a radiographer want?