Posted on 01/21/2007 5:41:34 PM PST by blam
Luck of the Irish pays off big time
Last Updated: 12:36am GMT 22/01/2007
The Big Issue seller standing outside a newsagent in a seaside celebrity hideaway was singularly unimpressed by Europe's most spectacular economic success story.
His reaction to the news that the Irish were now officially among the world's richest people was unprintable. As a purveyor of the homeless magazine in affluent Dalkey, the Dublin suburb where Bono, Enya and the film-maker Neil Jordan live, he was only too aware that the Celtic Tiger has yet to bestow its largesse on him.
Others have been much luckier, as the spiralling prices of the handsome homes overlooking the sea and their occupants' multi-million euro bank balances testify.
The transformation of Ireland from a rural backwater to an economic powerhouse where big business and the developer reign supreme has been truly remarkable.
The latest extraordinary chapter in this fiscal renaissance has seen the once downtrodden victim of famine and mass emigration, recognised as the country with one of the highest incomes per capita in the world.
When that particular measure of wealth is used, Ireland sits at the very top of the international league table, according to a report by Standard & Poor, the respected provider of financial intelligence.
Surpassed only by tiny financial centres such as Bermuda and Liechtenstein and the oil-based economies of Qatar and Norway, Ireland comfortably outperforms the United States and Britain. Recording an income per head of £28,917, Ireland beat the US (£23,144) and comfortably saw off Britain's figure of £20,714.
"It's great, isn't it," said John O'Brien, a green-grocer taking a break from serving the well-to-do customers taking his wares home in their Chelsea tractors.
"Everybody's making millions. But I seem to be working harder and harder. Everyone else is cleaning up, though. It is great to see people doing well. But the people who are making the real money are the property speculators."
His last point was borne out in the windows of the local estate agents where even quite modest dwellings were on sale for more than a million euros.
"The chattering classes, who own property, are thrilled by the values," said Tom O'Higgins, the owner of Remax Property Choice estate agents.
"I am lucky enough to live in Dalkey, but I happen to have a large family of eight kids. Unfortunately there is no way they are going to be able afford to buy a house near their family. We are going to have to come to terms with the social consequences of this property bonanza."
Economists believe low taxation policies, generous payments from the European Union, increased stability in Northern Ireland, American investment and a highly skilled, but relatively low-cost, labour force have encouraged the boom.
But another questionable side-effect has been the failure of Ireland's infrastructure to keep up with large scale construction projects and a resurgent population.
For those reluctant to join the ever enlarging helicopter owning set, the congestion on the roads can be infuriating. The government has embarked on a huge road-building programme, but it has yet to catch up with the exponential increase in car ownership seen over the past decade.
"Given that we are supposedly so well off, they are not looking after the people," said Catherine Dunne, a worker with Credit Union, the community financial co-operative.
"There are still huge inequalities here and the health service here is not good enough. Public transport is a joke. There are a lot of things that have to be done. Things are still too ad hoc."
The soaring prices were the main issue for Nicola Byrne, 20, a student living at home. "Everything is so expensive. I work in a shop to make ends meet, but I still find it quite difficult to afford a social life," she said.
But for others, the reversal of decades of economic stagnation that forced so many Irish to make a living abroad, is to be welcomed.
The declining population has been replaced with one in which under-45s make up 66 per cent of the total. Last year 70,000 people moved to the Republic of Ireland and the population currently standing at 4.3 million is expected to top five million by 2016.
"Ireland has changed radically over the past 16 years," said Ian McCarthy, the managing director of the estate agents Sherry FitzGerald. "We have changed from a country that people have traditionally left, to one in which people are now returning in their droves."
The downside, according to Luis Gonzalez, a Venezuelan who now recruits pupils to the Rockbrook private school nearby, has been a change in attitude.
The rustic, laid-back charm so long associated with Ireland was in danger of being superseded by a "greed is good" mentality.
"People are much more worried about material things than they used to be," he said.
"The pressure to do well is much higher. It is beneficial on the whole, because people that have a job can do well. But it is a two-way thing. Ireland seems to be going down the American route of consumerism. It has changed so much."
My guess is that Ireland's economic success will do more to reunite the country than all the IRA's bombs ever did. It's a lot more palatable to join an economic dynamo than a third world country.
"The Irish would be wise to keep immigration at a minimum"
"Too late. Been to Dublin lately?"
Ain't that the truth! The last time I was in Dublin I couldn't tell if if I was in East Asia or Eastern Europe.
21st century... how many more times before it sinks in???
'tis.
surely.
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