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ANALYSIS:The idea Irish regulatory and political failure is fuelled by excess judicial machinery overlooks too many external factors, writes GERARD HOGAN

DAN O’BRIEN raised the interesting question of whether the Constitution has contributed to political inertia and, hence, to economic underperformance (Opinion and Analysis, November 7th). A central part of this thesis is that Ireland has performed worse than any other developed country in the present crisis. But this premise is, to my mind, highly questionable and, in any event, save for one possible exception, the Constitution has had no bearing on these issues one way or the other.