Figures boost for Irish Government Coalition amid concern

With just a year to go to a general election, all is going swimmingly well for the Government, at least on the economic front, writes Jim Power.

Every economic data release continues to move in the right direction, which will, in theory, make life more difficult for the opposition over the coming year if they adopt the approach of attacking the Government’s economic competency. Many commentators and opposition politicians have expounded the view over recent years that the economy would never recover and that fiscal austerity would destroy us forever.

This is proving not to be the case and, despite the savage fiscal adjustment since 2008, consumer and business confidence levels are climbing steadily and a more solid and broad-based recovery is taking hold.