Even the political benefits of independence began to hollow out when revelations of systemic abuse in the State\u2019s Catholic-run childcare system began to emerge.<\/p>\n
Then came the post-1990 segment, triggered, we like to think, by Ray Houghton, Mary Robinson and Riverdance<\/a>, but presumably incubating for longer and on the back of more fundamental sociopolitical factors (the peace process being one). <\/p>\n [\u00a0The Irish Times view on infrastructure delivery: radical solutions are neededOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Foreign direct investment<\/a>, premised on membership of the EU\u2019s single market and a low tax rate, began to transform the economy.<\/p>\n The role a more educated, high-skilled workforce played in all this can\u2019t be underestimated either.<\/p>\n While the first chapter of this new, more energised era came to a shuddering halt in 2008, the export-oriented, skills-led dynamic didn\u2019t stop.<\/p>\n Since the low point of the financial crash, the Irish economy has created almost one million additional jobs, a level of jobs growth that is unmatched anywhere in Europe (bar Malta, but that has a relatively small workforce). <\/p>\n Employment in the Republic now stands at a record 2.8 million, equivalent to the entire population of the State in 1961.<\/p>\n Our headline growth and budgetary metrics mark us out in European terms, but in a positive way. <\/p>\n The Republic\u2019s gross national income (GNI) per capita is now significantly higher than the UK\u2019s (\u20ac67,000 versus \u20ac42,000 in 2024).<\/p>\n Even with the GDP (gross domestic product) distortions, we have become a rich country in a relatively short time.<\/p>\n But this pre-1990, post-1990 binary has a counternarrrative.<\/p>\n Somewhere along the way and most likely on the back of a global shift towards more market-oriented policies, the State stopped building out its economy and adopted, like the UK, a more laissez-faire approach to state services and infrastructure. <\/p>\n In key areas like energy, water and housing, it effectively downed tools. We\u2019re now reaping the consequences of this ideological shift.<\/p>\n And because we never had a golden age of State-led building like our peers in Europe, we\u2019re way behind the curve. According to the International Monetary Fund<\/a>, our stock of infrastructure is 32 per cent behind its international peers.<\/p>\n You can moan about data centres and their energy-sapping requirements, but that\u2019s a smokescreen for a grid that\u2019s woefully oversubscribed and out of kilter with an island population of more than seven million.<\/p>\n All the high-voltage, large-scale transmission 400kV lines (think of them as the motorways of the grid) were built in the mid-1980s. Even the lesser 220kV lines predate the 1990s and 1980s.<\/p>\n Similarly, our fragmented and antiquated water system \u2013 the boil notices and no-swim restrictions that go with it \u2013 is a direct consequence of underfunding over several decades. <\/p>\n This dynamic was helped by the most pyrrhic of all populist victories \u2013 the anti-water charges movement, which succeeded in keeping water within the remit of central government and grossly underfunded while making no allowance for personal usage. <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754647931518-c07d65db-55b5-463e-ae51-976300c5837e.jpeg\"\/)
Why is Ireland not considered a truly rich country?<\/p>\n