After skipping the industrial revolution and going straight the silicon economy in the 1990s, Ireland is slipping back into its 20th century ways. Unemployment has returned to double-digit levels and a renewed wave of emigration has been seen. Unemployment rose to 12% in the second quarter of 2009, the highest since 1996.
The Irish economy has been one of the most badly hit by the global financial crisis, perhaps only second to Iceland, if such a thing can be measured.. There was a credit-fueled property boom while much of the economic growth came from US corporates taking advantage of low Irish corporate taxes to use the Emerald Isle as their gateway to Europe. Once the music stopped, debts went bad quickly and the economy contracted rapidly, leaving the financial sector as a shadow of its former self.
The Irish government has done much to take as much of the burden on itself as it can. Now Ireland must hope for a rising tide to lift the tiny economy back into the 21st Century.
