After a year of pain and drama we have become a more honest country

OUT here in the real economy, the worldly-wise knew in mid-2007 that the Celtic Tiger was dead. Property prices started to fall, spending slowed, job losses accelerated and business sentiment turned sour.

Car dealers, hoteliers, shopkeepers and building workers knew the economy was starting to run on empty. Blue smoke was being emitted from our economic engine. We learned the global financial system had been operating schemes of pyramid selling for more than a decade. The whole house of cards collapsed — resulting in a halving on average of personal and corporate wealth.

Up to mid-2009 our political leaders and official Ireland were in denial. They refused to accept that our economic miracle was mostly a property and credit bubble. When it burst, there was little left only debt. This comprised mostly private and personal indebtedness of more than €400bn. We now know there aren’t the assets, cash or incomes to cover these liabilities. Our personal and corporate balance sheets are fractured. Like a cancer patient who refuses to believe the bad news, further professional opinions were sought. A paralysis of analysis ensued. Commissions, taskforces, consultants, think-tanks and committees provided a wall of obfuscation.