Professor John McHale:

On the question of whether austerity is working, we must recall why we engaged in this process. It turned out that Ireland's debt was not considered sustainable, that is, it could not be financed in the markets. We essentially lost access to funding and could not borrow. Being able to borrow is critical to the running of the State, given the large deficit that continues to exist. The fiscal adjustments needed to be engaged in to reduce the deficit and to put our debt onto a sustainable path.