Never mind the doomsayers, there’s lots of life in the Celtic Tiger yet

LISTENING to the steady flow of depressing statistics from the various think-tanks and from individual economists has convinced me that bad news is both contagious and counter-productive.

Is there really any great need for harbingers of doom to rub our noses in it, especially at a time when we should be preparing to roll up our sleeves to face, head on, whatever the new year can throw at us.

We didn’t get to where we are today by crying into our beer and dwelling on the miserable hand that fate had dealt us. Nor did global uncertainty, war, famine or natural disasters divert us from our ambition to lead the field while the rest of Europe begrudged us our place in the sun.