Clinton predicts Ireland will bounce back within 5 years

BILL CLINTON predicted Ireland would overturn five centuries of economic history by emerging from its financial crash in less than five years.

In an upbeat, but sober, address to the Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin Castle, the former US president said that no nation had achieved such a speedy recovery since economic boom and bust bubbles emerged in the early 17th century, but he believed Ireland was poised to defy economic precedence.

Mr Clinton offered to host a special Irish jobs summit in New York next year to help boost the recovery. He said a similar gathering organised by his foundation concentrating on the US market had resulted in $12 billion (€9bn) of investment and the creation of 150,000 jobs.