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Abstract
In order to develop a policy framework and guidelines for improving a national
approach to the management of Irish coastal regions and associated resources one first
needs to be able to define what is meant by ‘a coastal region’ in an Irish context and
secondly to know how the socio-economic characteristics of Irish coastal populations
differ from the national perspective. This paper contains a range of official socioeconomic
statistics, from a range of existing statistical domains, compiled for the first
time in terms of Irish coastal regions. These coastal regions are defined at a number of
alternative levels of spatial aggregation. The compilation of such data is also
important when one considers the recommendations of the European Council and
Parliament concerning the implementation of Integrated Coastal Zone Management
and the requirements of policies such as Integrated Maritime Policy for the European
Union and the EU Marine Framework Strategy Directive.