Myth 3: “The bailout caused the Irish recession.” There is a danger that some such proposition – preposterous though it would have seemed to any contemporary observer at the time of the bailout – has gained some traction among latecomers to the Ireland case.
A glance at charts of output or employment confirms that the economy had already pretty much hit bottom by the time of the bailout. At most it could be discussed whether the terms of the bailout and indeed wider euro area policies at the time might have delayed the recovery relative to some other set of policies.