In the latest episode of ‘In Conversation’, a podcast series hosted by Tánaiste Micheál Martin, the Fianna Fáil leader sits down with Seamus Coffey, a lecturer in the Department of Economics in University College Cork and former Chair of the Fiscal Advisory Council.
With Budget 2024 approaching, the discussion centres around a range of issues that affect ordinary people on a daily basis including the high cost of living, the performance of the economy and what should be prioritised next month to ensure delivery of a progressive and fair budget focused on delivering improvements for households at all income levels, especially low and middle earners.
Offering his assessment of the Irish economy right now and the threats and challenges that lie ahead, Seamus Coffey said the performance has been remarkably positive given what the Irish economy has gone through.
"Just take employment and the growth and the maintenance of employment over recent years. You go back to the early 1990's, total employment in Ireland was just reaching a million and we're now at 2.6 million and a couple of hundred thousand higher than it was back in 2019."
While Ireland is an attractive place to come to, with a growing population, it does result in housing difficulties.
Seamus Coffey said, " Housing is one of those slow burn issues that the problems develop slowly and then tend to happen very quickly. There must be recognition that some of the analysis undertaken 12 or 15 years ago was wide of the mark. A lot of the narrative from economists in the country was that we have too much housing and that we would spend a number of years knocking houses.
"Clearly that analysis was incorrect and a number of years later, we found ourselves returning to growth, employment and inward migration, with a younger population looking to form households, where simply the houses weren't available.''
-ENDS-
Note to Editors:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0G4yf2G27bzLb6pqR5jsix
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/in-conversation-with-seamus-coffey/id1700210460?i=1000629821165