We have a fat economy, but our society looks distinctly anorexic

I’m not quite sure what the official date of birth of the Celtic Tiger was, but in my own mind I perceived the really visible beginnings of economic growth around 1996. It was around that time that house prices began to lift off, albeit at a much slower rate than what we have seen in more recent years.

It seems appropriate now, at the end of 2006, to take stock of where the Celtic Tiger has taken us over these remarkable 10 years.

Of course it has given us much of which we can be proud. We have cultural and recreational opportunities open to us now we never thought imaginable; many people who bought houses 10 years ago are property millionaires; the scourges of emigration and unemployment have been effectively eradicated and the public finances have continued to grow.