If the policy of trying to disperse asylum-seekers to the farthest corners of the island was aimed at making this State seem less attractive to their compatriots, then it is certainly working.
Bunbeg, beautiful but remote, in the Gaeltacht area of north west Donegal is one of the latest towns to receive people from African, eastern European and Middle Eastern countries. Asylum-seekers who have been arriving there since January, while praising local hospitality and the accommodation provided, are finding it difficult to adjust.
Considering the degree of debate about the accommodation crisis in Dublin and the relatively low population rates in the north-west, it seems remarkable that in total fewer than 60 people have been accommodated in the three counties of Sligo, Leitrim and Donegal. All of these are in three different centres, a B&B on the outskirts of Sligo town, a small hotel in Bunbeg and a private house in Falcarragh, also a Donegal Gaeltacht area.
Bunbeg now has one African child among its primary school population, four-year-old Olivia Bailundo from Angola. With big bright eyes, stand-up pigtails and a concentrated look, Olivia slowly counts up to 10 in Irish as proof that she's attending the local school.
Having performed her "aon, do, tri", she repeats the exercise in English, smiles broadly, and then takes the offer of a chocolate biscuit from the table before disappearing around the corner. Irish would be her fourth language, after her native African language, Portuguese and the English she's learned since arriving in Ireland.
Adults have not been finding it so easy to adjust. Eric Pearson (31) from Nigeria doesn't want to appear ungrateful. Before arriving in Ireland, he had been in hiding for some months. A member of the Ijaw tribe from an oil-rich region, he was a leader of a youth movement opposing government policies which saw the spoils of the oil industry go elsewhere while his people were left in dire poverty.
At least he knows he is safe here. "For the first time I don't have to worry about who is coming after me, and the people are fantastic. They have given us the best treatment we can get anywhere."
Nobody could argue that ensuite bedrooms and three meals a day constitute poor treatment, but the system of providing them with full board and £15 a week for all other expenses means they are left with nothing to do all day.
Eric says he knows these are minor problems, but apart from the boredom and lack of any social outlet, he cannot get any food he is used to and he has to eat at set meal times. His most basic request is that he be allowed cook for himself.
He has been in Donegal since he first arrived in Ireland about three months ago, although he has visited Dublin briefly three or four times, where he has kept in touch with another Nigerian who arrived with him. Life for Nigerians in Dublin where there are African shops, he says, is totally different.
"In Dublin you can walk down to the city centre and look at people and look at what is happening. You don't feel this isolation. Here you walk to the shop a half-kilometre away, but you don't see a single human being. You only see cars passing."
For asylum-seekers in Bunbeg there is very little to do. Harsh Atlantic winds and frequent March showers take some getting used to and mean many of those at the hotel spend long periods indoors. "You wake up in the morning, and you eat your breakfast, then you watch TV until one o'clock when you get your lunch. Then you watch TV again until dinner. If you go to bed early and wake up too early, you cannot make yourself a cup of tea," explains Eric.
Of the 25 or so people now staying in Bunbeg, the mixed nationalities - which include Algerians, Nigerians, Angolans, Romanians and Belarussians as well as individuals from Iran, Iraq and Pakistan - mean communication is limited.
English classes are to be provided from next week, but until now the TV and computer games appear to be the main diversions. With just £15 per week, they cannot afford to socialise in the local pubs and those who were smokers can at least thank the Irish State for their healthier lungs. There is a swimming pool in a local hotel, but again this costs money. Even a town of the size of Letterkenny would have been more suitable.
The isolation of Bunbeg has proved too much for some, although only a small minority of those sent there have actually left. A Lithuanian couple, with a four-year-old child, took the bus out of town last weekend and didn't return. Meanwhile, an Algerian couple now have a Donegal baby, after the birth in Letterkenny General Hospital five weeks ago.
Harsany Sebastian (25), from Romania, says he just wishes the authorities would allow him to work while he's waiting for his application to be processed. He wants to be able to send money to his family back home, and cannot understand why Romanians who arrived with him were allowed stay in Dublin. They were allowed find their own accommodation and receive £72 a week to live on.
He says the hotel is starting to feel like a prison and he won't be able to stick it for much longer. "I don't want to eat every day at the same time."
If he is not granted asylum, he will try another country rather than return to Romania, where he says he suffers discrimination because of his Hungarian name. "I don't have time to stay like this. I have to help my family."
Eric says the only racism he ever encountered was on the streets of Dublin. "I don't know whether to call it racism or stupidity. I was told `You black b-----. What are you doing here? I just laughed because in every society you see one or two people behaving abnormally. I am not worried about things like that because I think the majority of people are good. They want to know you and shake your hand, and that is a nice feeling."