Let's deal with the elephant in the room.

Mike Gaine's disappearance from his home outside Kenmare in Co Kerry more than a week ago has arguably received a disproportionate amount of attention.

The 56-year-old sheep and beef cattle farmer hasn't been seen since he bought credit for his phone in the Centra store on the outskirts of Kenmare at 9.48am on Thursday 20 March.

In the week since then, gardaí have issued national appeals for information about a total of nine people reported missing to them, including Mike Gaine.

None of the other eight have generated anything like the interest that has been shown in the disappearance of Mike Gaine.

There hasn't been a day since his disappearance was first reported that the search for him has been out of the media - be that television, radio, print or online.

And there has clearly been an appetite among the public for information and updates. Throughout the week, his story has consistently been one of the most read on RTÉ News online, for instance.

Mike Gaine's case clearly stands out from other missing persons' cases. Perhaps that is grounded in a belief - correct or incorrect - that there is more here than meets the eye.

It might also explain the level of coverage the story has received.

People are asking: 'Has Mike Gaine met a sinister end?' 'Was there foul play involved in his disappearance?'

One national newspaper reported earlier this week that investigating gardaí feared he may have been murdered, before quickly adding that they also feared he may have fallen into a slurry pit.

Needless to say, there's a big difference between the two.

The truth is, all possibilities relating to the disappearance are on the table. Foul play? It's being considered, certainly, but other possibilities have also been considered.

An incident room has been established at Killarney Garda Station.

Increasingly, that is where more of the work in relation to this case is being done.

Early in his disappearance, the bulk of the work was being done in and around Mike Gaine's farmyard and in and around his farm, a not-insignificant 1,000 acres - mostly mountainous - which stretches from the outskirts of Kenmare to Moll's Gap on the Ring of Kerry.

It is a stunningly beautiful part of the world, but it's also difficult, rough terrain. That is part of the attraction that draws hundreds of thousands of people to drive the road past Mike Gaine's farm every year.

The concentration of the search on the farmyard and out-buildings leads to the conclusion that this is where gardaí believe they have the best chance of finding evidence to explain his disappearance.

Mike Gaine's home isn't adjacent to the farmyard, as most farmhouses would be. It's located more than a kilometre away, closer to Kenmare. It hasn't been subject to the same intensive search as the farmyard and outbuildings.

It was in the farmyard that Mike Gaine's Toyota Rav4 was found that led to the report of his disappearance.

A number of personal items are understood to have been found in the SUV which suggest that, when he left it, he didn't intend to go far or for too long.

The Rav4 was removed from the farmyard on a trailer last Saturday afternoon and has since undergone a forensic examination.

Local people who knew Mike Gaine suggest that a long-standing injury to one of his legs wouldn't have allowed him travel a great distance on the farm on foot.

This explains why the slurry tanks in the farmyard were drained, and why an excavator was kept busy there for a number of days over the past week.

Gradually, as the physical search failed to yield results, the focus has turned to intelligence-based police work and the deliberations in the incident room.

There are daily case conferences where developments are considered. Significant decisions relating to the case are being taken in Killarney, not in Kenmare.

From the outset and at all times since then, gardaí have described Mike Gaine's disappearance as a missing person's case.

Different types of investigations don't have set, fixed budgets, but it's very clear that no resources have been spared to establish what happened to him.

For instance, in addition to the garda search teams, the 200-plus volunteers, the members of Kerry Mountain Rescue Team, Iveragh Coast Guard Unit and Kerry Civil Defence, the area was searched extensively last the weekend by Rescue 115, the Coast Guard helicopter based in Shannon, as well as by An Garda Síochána's own helicopter.

The Garda Water Unit joined the search on Wednesday.

Since then, members of the unit have searched a disused quarry over three kilometres from the farmyard.

They also searched Barfinnihy lake, around a kilometre from Molls Gap. Then they searched Lough Eirc, a lake several hundred metres above the farmyard and the Ring of Kerry road. Lough Eirc provides the water for the public water supply in Kenmare.

On Thursday, around a dozen uniformed gardaí placed checkpoints on a number of roads in Kenmare for several hours, hoping to meet motorists who may have travelled those roads at the same time a week previously and who may have met Mike Gaine, or captured dashcam footage of his Rav4.

Speaking at one of those checkpoints, outside the Centra store where Mike Gaine was last seen, Superintendent David Callaghan highlighted the anxiety this case has generated.

"Michael's family have had no contact with him," he said. "His family and An Garda Síochána are extremely concerned for his wellbeing."

The passage of over a week since Mike Gaine's disappearance is baffling and troubling local people.

"There is nothing to explain Mike's disappearance," local county councillor, neighbour and friend, Dan McCarthy told RTÉ News.

"It is absolutely out of character completely that he vanished off the face of the earth, in this rural part of the county and the country. Everyone is worried and concerned at this stage for Mike's safety."

He described Mike Gaine as a man who was popular locally, who enjoyed banter around the town or at the mart and who loved rallying.

He said he was a good farmer who was up early every morning to feed his cattle and sheep. He was always able to achieve a good price for his animals, because he could produce them and they were well cared for.

Dan McCarthy says the past week has been a difficult one for people in Kenmare. As time passes, they are aware that the chances of finding Mike Gaine alive are less likely.

The possibility that something sinister may have happened to him is also being considered.

He admits it's hard to make sense of it.

"It's absolutely unbelievable what's happening," Dan McCarthy says. "There is a gloom and a deadness around the area. People are meeting in groups and the whole conversation is 'where is Mike'."

The turnout of volunteers who joined the search for Mike Gaine in Kenmare last weekend is taken as testament to his popularity in the area.

Dan McCarthy says Mike Gaine's wife, Janice, and his sisters, Noreen and Catherine, are very grateful for the turnout on the search at the weekend and have been taking much comfort from it.

He says it is more difficult on them, as time moves on.

The reality dawning in Kenmare is that it will be very difficult to explain what happened to Mike Gaine without finding some trace of him, even if that means that the search now is for his body.