Ireland is still the most successful economy in the European Union and its current economic difficulties must not be exaggerated, the Tβnaiste, Ms Harney declared yesterday. The bullish declaration came in the wake of a warning on Tuesday from the governor of the Central Bank, Mr Maurice O'Connell, that the era of the Celtic Tiger was over.
"If we manage our affairs properly during this very difficult period over the next number of months, I have every confidence that the country will return to high growth rates," Ms Harney said. The United States economy, where downturns rarely last for "more than seven months", would recover more quickly than many expect, she predicted. "The downturn will not last forever."
Facing Dβil questions from the leader of Fine Gael, Mr Michael Noonan, and the leader of the Labour Party, Mr Ruair∅ Quinn, the Tβnaiste said: "It behoves all of us not to hype a difficult situation." She went on: "We must put things in perspective. The economy is doing well. There are huge international difficulties. We are not doing as well as we were.
"We are an open economy. There is a global slowdown, which was already happening in the information communication technology sector. That has been compounded by the tragic events of September 11th, which have undermined confidence in the United States and globally. We are suffering and we will continue to suffer the effects of that in the next number of weeks.
"However, the fundamentals are sound. We have a good budgetary situation relative to where we were 10 years ago when we experienced difficulties. We had more than 15,000 notifiable redundancies in 1993. The economic base was different from what it is today.
"There are an extra 400,000 at work. Just because one stops driving a car at 100 miles per hour and slows down to 70 miles per hour does not mean that one is not driving a car. This economy continues to grow," she said.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, would give US industrialists an "upbeat" assessment of the Irish economy's prospects during his three-day visit to Boston, New York and Washington, Ms Harney said.
In a radio interview later, she disputed the Central Bank governor's contention that the economy was currently not growing at all. However, Mr Noonan said the Taoiseach had agreed with the governor that the State was "heading straight into a recession".
"The people do not have a lack of confidence in themselves, but they have an increasing lack of confidence in an incompetent Government that has squandered the boom," he said.
Mr Quinn said he believed the Tβnaiste had "become comfortable and complacent" in government and presumed that "the boom would continue forever".
