Minister misreads the economic indicators

BARRY WALSH (Irish Examiner letters, July 12) is right to question Michael McDowell’s ability with statistics, when he disputes the minister’s recent statement that “anybody with any memory knows that Fine Gael and the Labour party together form a slump coalition”.

Anyone with a memory will remember how some years ago Mr McDowell, while a member of the cabinet, claimed we were enjoying a boomtime 5% growth when the economy was actually stagnating with the rest of the global economy in the wake of 9/11.

True to form, he blamed an unnamed public servant who had briefed him incorrectly before the interview.

This being Ireland, nobody seemed to question the commitment of a cabinet member who did not seem to have even a basic understanding of how the economy was doing.

Maybe it is Mr McDowell’s legal training that puts him at sea in area of economics. Barristers deal in adversarial arguments, while economics is a science that deals in statistical fact.

The average rate of growth achieved under the Rainbow coalition was better than that achieved by any government before or since. That is a fact, not an argument.

Tim O’Halloran

23 Ferndale Road

Dublin 11