Cheering figures - Economy to grow by 3.5%

After nearly eight years of budget cuts, job losses, resurgent emigration, and denial, news that the European Commission expects Ireland is set to remain the fastest-growing economy in the European Union cannot but be cheering.

It is also a vindication for so many of the hard policy decisions taken in recent years.

The Commission has predicted growth of 3.5% for 2015, a marginal reduction on an earlier estimate of 3.6%. The French economy is expected to grow by 1% and German GDP is expected to grow by 1.5%.

This is, of course, good news but we would be foolish if we did not also recall the boom-and-bust cycle that ended so disastrously in 2007.

It may seem curmudgeonly to argue for restraint and caution just as the sun begins to break through the clouds, but a return to the recklessness and excesses — especially in house and property prices — would inevitably end in something approaching disaster. The Commission’s optimism is welcome but, as ever, it is best to make haste slowly.