The scale of fiscal adjustment needed even then is an indication of how badly-skewed our public finances had become in the boom, with what proved to be transitory revenues used to increase the level of spending well above what could be sustained.
Achieving fiscal targets is easier when the economy grows; more important, there are more jobs and more income to go around when the economy grows. In the face of weakening economic activity in many parts of the euro area there has been a tendency for international comment to consider the Irish economy’s current performance as rather good.