Also, the fact that Ireland is English-speaking hasn’t harmed the Government’s attempts to attract inward investment. I’m sure that’s one reason why Ireland has had much more success than, say, Portugal.
What I don’t understand is how these generous tax breaks for new investors are being funded: is it ESF money or have there been collateral tax increases or spending cuts elsewhere?
Spending cuts, mainly. According to OECD statistics, in the decade since the Programme for National Recovery was introduced, government spending fell by about 9%. Most other EU countries recorded an increase.
Peace
Reagan’s great-grandparents were Irish, I believe.
I know your statement about BMWs wasn’t meant to be taken literally but Ireland actually has a car ownership rate significantly below the EU average. While this economy has put a lot of people into work they aren’t necessarily earning a lot more money or having a lot more disposable income. As I mentioned earlier, wages are fairly low here (thanks in large part to a series of agreements between the Government and union leaders) while the cost of living, in the cities and suburbs at least, is fairly high.
Also Ireland’s GNP is much lower than its GDP which shows that the multinationals operating here are exporting a lot of their profits. The Irish aren’t even seeing this money.
Hopefully this economy won’t be followed by a deep recession as Reaganomics was and hopefully the next budget will see the Government try a bit harder to make the Celtic Tiger “work” for everyone.
Peace
You’re right. I’m 29 and grew up in a world of hungerstrikes, carbombs(in Dublin aswell) and numerous atrocities by terrorists and Governments alike, Dole queues and a lot more poverty than I see now.
Now there are peace talks, confidence and hope. There are still poor and unfortunates living on the streets but it’s better than it was.
BMW’s are all over the place (relative to what I remember) but these are probably financed. The level of debt is high over here.
So while everything isn’t great and may all come down like a house of cards it’s a place I like being in and have great hope for the future.
Ruadh
I wanted to pick you up on a number of points.
The first is in relation to the refugee issue. You are absolutely correct. And it is embarrassing.
I find it very hard to reconcile the fact that people can hold these views and still claim to be members of an enlightened broad minded society. The contradiction is something I just don’t understand.
"Ireland now has the second greatest rich-poor disparity"
Indeed I understand from recent reports that there are more homeless people living on the streets of Dublin than there are in London,Liverpool and Bristol COMBINED. That’s not on a per capita basis either .
"The new budget is very much a blatant attempt at vote-grabbing "
Now can I ask you where the utopian society is ? The one where a budget is not used as an attempt to grab votes and retain power? Methinks you will have to look quite far.
“The other problem is that the Celtic Tiger economy is based upon only a
small handful of industries and thus it will live and die on the global success
of those industries (mainly computing, financial services and pharmaceuticals).”
What options are there? How would you suggest one might go about reordering an economy.
We must diversify that is sure. We must spread our risks. But I fail to see how consolidating the highly successful industry sectors you have astutely pointed out as the main foundation of the Tiger Economy is wrong.Initially these were high risk sectors to be involved in in Ireland. If Taiwan suddenly gave similar concessions to foreign industry then Zipppp…they were outta here. But as I tried to point out in my earlier post the nature of the industries locating here has changed. Manufacturing plants are springing up all over the place. These are not quite so simple to locate. Channels have been established which means that the sectors cannot afford to be fickle.
Ireland has established itself as the silicon valley of Europe. Would you be as concerned about the fact that the real silicon valley has concentrated on a handful of Industry types?
I believe that there is little to fear in specializing in a number of areas. Spreading too wide is unmanageable and I would worry that it be possible to be Jack of all trades and master of none. I think that in the emerging United States of Europe there will be a lasting place for a country whose role in the new industry is established. We don’t have mush else to bring other than our Agricultural sector which would be swallowed whole in New Europe.
Now I am aware that I am straying into the type of self congratulatory rhetoric of the new breed of “Celtic Optimist”. This is the facet that Ireland should fear most. I believe that complacency is the enemy. The Irish are in danger of being blinded by Ireland’s new found success. Vigilance is called for and I think perhaps the most obvious thing we should look at is the unbelievable reaction to the inflation figures. Not the figure itself but the reaction to it. I do not hear much in the way of concern among our politicians and journalists and yet we see a remarkably fast rise in a few short years from the lowest figure the country has every enjoyed to the highest (in recent times).
I have not read Denis O’Hearn’s work . Do I understand that this is the same gentleman who has so much to say about the imminent collapse of the Euro ? If so I fear that he is hardly a source that I would attribute much to in the way of balanced and informed opinion.
BTW. JFK had irish roots too. He made a much publiscised trip here years ago and visited his ancestral home in Cork I think
Sweden is going through some difficult times at the moment I understand and much of the wealth has left the country and pennies need pinching.
Now Norway …theres a place we wont see in the EU for a while. Oslo is an amazing place you can smell the money…must be good buisness in oily whales.
“and that maligned Reaganomics works”
There you go again. Absurd. This facile equivalence obscures many contrary facts. Reagan had giant deficits brought about by spending way more money than the government brought in. He gave tax cuts to his rich friends and screwed everyone else. Ketchup was considered a vegetable during the Reagan regime. He and Thatcher milksnatcher took food out of the mouths of hungry children to give tax breaks to large companies which sold three dollar butterfly shaped land mines (look at the pretty toy!) to dictators in the third world. No amount of revisionist history will hide the fact that he was a bloated, plutocratic, murderous slime.
That’s not a very convincing argument for it, Damhna 
“Wrong” isn’t the word I would use; “risky” more like, and I’d think it would be obvious why. Those industries are highly successful at the moment, but no-one can predict the future. If Ireland’s economy was based upon a wider range of industries there would be less of a problem if one or two of them hit a downturn.
Well, actually, yes. Having lived in the Bay Area for seven years I can tell you that a lot of people have some concerns about this. Lessened probably by the fact that the area was pretty well-off to begin with … and of course if the economy of a region within a state within a country collapses it isn’t as big a problem as if an entire nation’s economy collapses. But yes, the issue does get raised there from time to time.
I’m not aware of any of his statements on the Euro and a Google search isn’t coming up with anything either. You sure it’s the same guy? He’s a Queens University economist, and his opinion, while possibly not balanced, is certainly informed.
Chronolicht,
You, thinker, do not even understand that you are alive and working today because of his policies. Nobody will remember your heroes’ names by the end of this centuty, his is already in history. BTW, I do not revise history, do not make any illusions. Pray for him every morning to the end of your days. Reclassify ketchup made from vegetables to dairy products or show me any military weapon priced for $3.
I am sorry that your name appeared in this thread, it was so interesing and educational.
** No amount of revisionist history will hide the fact that he was a bloated, plutocratic, murderous slime.**
You too.
I had a reply ready, so I did’nt read all the posts so it may have been said. Up until the 90’s, Ireland had 20% unemployment and were still exporting people. Of course, they had set in the favorable business climate and were on the rise by the early 80’s or sooner. My buddy from north NJ said there were large numbers of illegal Irish immigrants in heavily populated Irish areas, and so easily blended they were impossible to find.
Misleading cognomen, do your homework. There are a number of countries which produce butterfly mines designed to be dropped from helicopters. They cost anywhere from three to thirty dollars a piece. African dictatorships are especially fond of them. There are giant spans of arable land in Africa that have been permanently ruined – a de facto blight, they last as long as 75 years – because of these mines. One in forty seven people in Angola is hobbling around incomplete because of these “foot poppers”. The toll on their economies from the loss of land and permanently crippled work force is incalculable. The gift that keeps on giving.
These mines are made from plastic and metal and dynamite or semtex. They weigh about six ounces each. There is nothing magical about them. The technology needed to produce them isn’t very advanced. There is, no doubt, a hefty mark up at three bucks per.
The United States wouldn’t sign an accord agreed upon by over 160 other countries to stop selling them, ostensibly because of the DMZ between North and South Korea. The real reason is that the US arms manufacturers lobbied heavily against it.
I am alive and working today because of Ronnie? That’s hyperbole with a hard e at the end, even if you believe it. Look up plutocrat while you are at it. You contradict yourself.
It makes as much sense to pray to him as to a sentient God. Why would I vest my power in a figure, real or imagined, and then pray to it?
The statistics reveal three major trends during the 80s:
(copyrighted link removed. Please refer to one of the essays here: http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/tenets.htm )
[Edited by manhattan on 12-18-2000 at 05:54 PM]
Oh, that’s still true. I honestly couldn’t count the number of illegal Irish I know in San Francisco. They aren’t difficult to find if you’re looking for them - just go into any Irish pub on the weekend (by which I mean a real Irish pub, not just a place that hangs shamrocks and leprechauns on its walls). INS raids on these places are extremely uncommon, though, which I’m sure has nothing to do with the fact that the Irish are white and English-speaking.
How is it that I only get to see these threads when they have gone way off the OP subject?
Another factor(s) that has helped Ireland do well as the gateway to europe is that we speak english and are going to use the Euro as a currency.
At the moment there is a massive advertising campain aimed at Irish people who have come home for Christmas, trying to prersuade them to return permanently.
Now back to reganomics…
No. Not back to Reaganomics. This was a perfectly good factual thread about the Irish renaissance until it became a Reagan thread.
We have a forum for people who want to debate Reaganomics. Go there.
Also: Chronolicht, that looks like a copyrighted article to me. Where did you get it?
You’re right. It is copyrighted, I think. Is that a faux pas? Have I broken a law? I credited Steve Kangus. His link is above in another one of my posts.
The Irish are going to accept the euro? What does that mean? Will/is there the perception that England is parochial because of their refusal? What impact will it have on the Irish economy?
I befriended an Englishman during a British History course I took. Rupert and another English friend confirm that the English have a nasty racist bent, too. But racists are everywhere.
Yeah, copyrighted stuff has to go bye-bye. No huge offense on your part – no banning, fines, wet noodles, etc. But please keep in mind that the Chicago Reader, as owner of this site, makes its dough (such as it is) from intellectual property.
We’d be pretty mad if folks started cutting an pasting Cecil’s columns all over the internet without permission; the least we can do is extend the same courtesy to other producers of intellectual property.
I am not Irish but an American business reporter, and I would second what Pergau said about the importance of the English language. When I asked an American CEO why his company decided to base his European operations in Ireland, he mentioned the tax breaks but also emphasized the language factor. This was especially important because the company put the phone center there, as many other firms have done.
Manhattan, how much of an article can you quote before you violate the fair-use rule?