Tony Foley, senior lecturer in economics in DCUBS, delivers a keynote state of the economy talk entitled “Is Ireland out of the economic woods?” to the annual Conference of the Hardware Association of Ireland today, Thursday 7th April in the Lyrath Estate Hotel, Kilkenny.

In the talk Foley concludes…

While the economy is out of the woods in terms of the 2008 collapse, it still faces the ongoing economy management issues faced by all economies with two significant additional Irish elements; how do we have a good public services society with a tax system which which encourages enterprise and initiative and how do we cope with the pent-up demand for higher incomes and better living standards. In the context of the recent election terminology of a fairer and more economically inclusive Ireland and sharing the recovery, Foley concludes that this objective will require more resources than are likely to be available from the fiscal space over the next few years and especially in the next two years. Future economic management will be difficult because raised expectations will be difficult or impossible to be realised.

Tony Foley is Senior Lecturer in Economics in DCU Business School, and lectures on the Executive MBA Programme.