Don’t be fooled by our positive GDP figures

On Wednesday, an Irish media website carried a headline to the effect that Ireland has the fourth-highest national income per head in the EU.

It went on to say we have this status despite being in receipt of a bailout and suffering an economic collapse. This might be interpreted as suggesting that because of its wealth, Ireland should not be in crisis or in receipt of a bailout.

This headline is reminiscent of another headline run by a serious broadsheet back in September 2005 which read — Ireland 2nd Wealthiest Country in World. Back then, those sorts of headlines helped us all get carried away with ourselves and believe that we were in a much stronger position than we actually are. We were wrong then, and we would be equally wrong today to believe that this headline reflects life on the ground in Ireland.