Professor John FitzGerald:

There is one additional point which concerns Erasmus for civil servants. I joined the Department of Finance in September 1972 and have seen the transformation of the Department of Finance. Everybody had to go to Brussels at the time, and at the age of 23, I found myself representing Ireland at a meeting in Brussels. The height of one's expectation had been to go to London to beg for access to the British market for a few people. Now, all civil servants, once they reach a certain level, will have to play on a European stage.

Northern Ireland had far more economists in the Northern Ireland civil service in 2007. I talked to them and I asked if they would lend a few to the Department of Finance, which had none in the Republic. The Department of Finance said we did not need them and, of course, the North was not able to lend them, and we saw the financial disaster in the Republic. A few bright northerners might have sorted things out. Having worked with the Northern Ireland administration, I have been to London representing Northern Ireland and was treated like dirt by the Treasury. In the same year, the future Secretary of the Treasury, Nick Macpherson, came to the ESRI for our advice on what might happen if the UK joined the monetary union. It is a good idea to swap civil servants occasionally. We now find in the Irish administration French and German civil servants and even, occasionally, British civil servants coming here. The problem, of course, is finding the language skills and we would need to send them abroad. However, I think a swap or a North-South Erasmus scheme would be very good for us both. Whatever happens in the future, it would be good preparation.