Vol. 418 No. 6
76 Mr. Noonan (Limerick East) asked the Minister for Finance if he agrees that the two most obvious characteristics of the Irish economy are (1) a level of income per capita in the bottom five of the OECD countries and (2) the second highest rate of unemployment in the OECD; and if he will outline the steps he intends to take to improve the relative positions of both of these.
No. The two characteristics of the Irish economy which have drawn most attention in recent years have been the achievement of the second highest rate of growth in real GNP and the second highest rate of growth in employment in the OECD area. From 1987 to 1990, growth in real GNP in Ireland averaged about 5 per cent per year. Last year, the economy continued to expand despite the fact that recessions in two of our main trading partners, the UK and the USA saw their GNP fall by 0.5 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. Thanks to competitiveness gains in recent years, Ireland did not follow these countries into recession as we might have done in the past. Output rose by about 2 per cent and employment held up very well in a difficult year. This shows the increased resilience of the Irish economy to unfavourable external developments.
The whole thrust of Government policy continues to be to promote the fundamental conditions for raising growth in income and employment by improving all aspects of our competitiveness. Tackling unemployment and involuntary emigration is a main priority of policies set out successively in the Programme for National Recovery, the Programme for Government and the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. The significant increase in private sector non-agricultural employment achieved over the past few years is a measure of the success of these policies. We are well placed to record further gains as the international economy improves.
