We’re in a bad state? Just think of the ’80s

WHEN I finished college and began my search for a job in the late 1980s, Ireland was a different place.

We had been through years of high unemployment, our public finances were a mess and we had very high tax and interest rates. In my first job I worked for £1.50 per hour — no minimum wage then.

Now think of all the improvements in the past 20 years: new motorways, tunnels, bridges, streetscapes and a public transport system with new trains, bus fleets and stations.

Our airports have been transformed with large infrastructural improvements and hundreds of new routes. Our telecommunications are comparable to any other industrial nation.

Our health system continues to improve with most general hospitals showing large infrastructural improvements. We have 1.9 million people employed today compared to 1.3m in 1987. This is further evidenced by the tens of thousands of house built in that time. The average variable mortgage interest rate today for a first-time buyer is 2.5%. In 1987 it was close to 14%.

Our education system has been transformed in 20 years with hundreds of new schools built and our colleges/universities showing phenomenal growth, giving us one of the best education systems in the world.

I am not naive. We do have serious problems. Certainly the greed shown by consumers, business people and bankers, together with our very high cost base, have left us in bad shape.

The fact that this is a worldwide problem (not just Ireland’s) should not be forgotten.

We have a sound platform to get ourselves out of this crisis and with strong leadership taking the difficult decisions, promoting innovation and making us more competitive, we will succeed.

Seán Murphy

West Avenue

Carrignacurra

Carrigaline

Co Cork