"He's certainly putting pressure on, he's come on and done everything asked of him," Kirwan said of West. "We're losing Chris Noakes [London Irish] and Jackson Willison [Grenoble] and they've got over 100 games' experience. If you look at our side we lack a bit of experience and Dan gives us a bit of comfort.
"We're really happy with the way Simon and Ihaia are going. We're happy we've got someone like Dan so that's money in the bank.
"We'll be looking in a month's time at what we're doing but as far as I'm concerned the guys that we've got currently and with Dan coming home we're pretty solid for next year."
Kirwan said he hadn't spoken to Barrett again about a move north after chasing him last year. After the disaster of the Benji Marshall experiment, Kirwan might be better to settle on the trio of West, Hickey and Bowden rather than cast the net any wider.
On reflecting on another season of disappointment, Kirwan, who said he hadn't quite given up hope of making the playoffs yet, picked the 39-36 defeat to the Lions in Johannesburg as the most galling.
"The Lions game probably is the game that upsets me the most. If we had won that game, and we should have won it, we would be on 30-31 points and still in the mix. That has put us under pressure for most of the season. But we've just got to win the next four games."
Blues first-fives in 2013
Simon Hickey
Benji Marshall
Chris Noakes
Ihaia West
Baden Kerr (pre-season)
Matt McGahon (pre-season).