Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Senator O'Toole said that nobody predicted the Celtic tiger economy and that is absolutely true; not one professional economist or academic predicted its emergence. Economics is universally known as the "dismal science" and for years we listened to the predictions of doom. Despite those dark forebodings and the constant efforts of some to demean the Government's economic efforts, particularly throughout the 1980s, the economy became a universal model for small developing countries in eastern Europe and elsewhere. Corrective action is currently being taken because no country could sustain a 10% annual growth rate in the long term. Such corrective action was necessary because the expectations of young people, to whom Senator Browne referred, had become too high. They sought huge salaries and wanted to be managing directors as soon as they graduated from university.