Professor Terrence McDonough:

It would probably be helpful to talk more specifically about what would constitute neoliberal policies which persisted pretty much from the 1987 breaking point up to the current day. The first point is the relatively low level that public expenditure takes up in relation to Irish GDP. This is somewhere around 30%, whereas the EU average would be around 40%. This has been consistent throughout this entire period. It is similar to the situation of the tax take, which came down subsequent to 1987 and has not come back much.

The question of openness and free trade and the strategy of internationalisation and running export surpluses would be very consistent across all the governments, in this case since 1957, certainly from 1987 to the present. We have also engaged in very light touch regulation which has persisted since 1987 and the foundation of the Irish Financial Services Centre, IFSC. While these policies might not have been defended enthusiastically by any given Administration they have remained constant.