Indeed, I would argue that the speed of the subsequent recovery from about the middle of 2012 was enhanced by the way in which fiscal policy halted and then reversed the growth in the debt ratio. Delaying this dynamic would probably have slowed the economic recovery because it would have deferred the return of business and market confidence in Ireland’s financial stability.
But more progress of this type is necessary to attract more people into the labour market, particularly as Europe’s populations become older, and to reach the goal which has been set up in the LISBON agenda, namely a rate of activity of 70 % by 2010.