McAleese: Society in the grip of high levels of anxiety

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese yesterday painted a grim picture of a country wracked by anxiety, as she told a conference in Dublin that “new burdens” had fallen on households because of the recession.

Speaking at the College of Psychiatry of Ireland’s International winter Conference in Croke Park, President McAleese said: “We gather here in a phase of pervasive, high levels of anxiety and worry about the economy.

“With appalling suddenness and severity, a buoyant economy with almost full employment has given way to a recession, considerable job loss, negative equity among home owners, reductions in salaries and values of pensions, disappearance of share dividend income and share value, failed and failing businesses and a litany of hard to digest bad news.”