The caress of optimism - From IDA acorns great things grow

WE all know how disappointing it can be when someone prematurely points to what they believe, or want us to believe, are the “first green shoots of recovery”.

Though we know, and as this month’s re-emerging daffodils confirm, winter always comes to an end it is easy to understand why every scrap of good news is tempered with a glance over the shoulder at the enormity of the challenge facing the euro, the cliff-hanging European and world economies, debt burdens — self-incurred or not — and Ireland’s place in the great, darkening drama.

Nevertheless, yesterday’s report from the Industrial Development Authority (IDA) that Ireland, through the organisation’s sterling efforts, had attracted a record number of investors last year is a genuine cause for real if balanced optimism.