ESRI outlook for Irish economy - Sobering report must be heeded

THE latest ESRI medium-term outlook for the Irish economy is both reassuring and worrying. 

Reassuring because it points to a sustainable long-term growth rate of 3%, a return to net immigration, and unemployment falling to 6%, a figure close to the magical 4% which economists regard as representing full employment.

Worrying because, while the report forecasts certain benefits for the Irish economy arising from Brexit and the prospect that Ireland might see a substantial relocation of foreign direct investment from the UK, this is subject to global demand being sustained and so is tenuous at best.