Ireland is going through some very difficult changes at present.
The “Celtic Tiger” is well and truly dead. Unemployment is running at 14.5%. The Bank of Ireland’s chief economist, Dan McLaughlin, has predicted that Ireland’s national debt will hit €173bn by the end of the year, an average of €81,519 for every worker in the State. As a result of the bail-out we have received from the EU-IMF-ECB “troika”, it seems that our national sovereignty has been eroded.
This morning I had occasion to be in the IDA Science & Technology Park on the Snugborough Road in Blanchardstown in Dublin 15.
I worked there (in Lucent Technologies) between 1997 and 2001.
I was overwhelmed by the changes that have taken place there. And not for the better.
The Lucent building (which is very sizeable) seems to be largely abandoned. A number of the other buildings seem to be closed down. Others (judging by the number of cars in their car parks) seem to have greatly reduced workforces.
When I worked there, there were queues of cars entering and leaving the park every morning and evening. During the summer, if we went for a walk around the estate, there would be hundreds of people taking a stroll.
Not so any more.
I was struck by the changes that have taken place there over the last 10 years. And I could not help wondering what the next 10 years holds in store for other businesses, and for our whole economy.
Obviously I hope that the coming years will see a recovery and a return to more optimistic times. But I can tell you that it was difficult to be optimistic this morning in the fact of what I was seeing.