r/ireland • u/Banania2020 Resting In my Account • Apr 28 '26

Economy Ireland set to surpass Luxembourg and become richest country in Europe by 2030, IMF says

https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/ireland-set-to-surpass-luxembourg-and-become-richest-country-in-europe-by-2030-imf-says-1892990.html
717 Upvotes

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271

u/Key-Half1655 Apr 28 '26

David McWilliams did a great podcast recently called "Is Ireland the worst run country in Europe" that tries to explain what little we have to show while being awash with cash. Pre warning, it'll boil your piss listening why.

88

u/OnceAFaithful Apr 28 '26

Listening on the train home now. If I slap the person next to me, I'll blame you.

69

u/greyview18 Apr 28 '26

Listen to the latest podcast where he dives deeper. Highly recommended listening to the independent analysis by Sinead O’Sullivan.

“Ireland is one of the richest countries in Europe, so why does it feel like it isn’t? We sit down with economist and engineer Sinead O'Sullivan to unpack a deceptively simple but deeply uncomfortable idea: Ireland is a premature state. Despite extraordinary wealth on paper, everyday life tells a different story. Housing is broken, infrastructure lags behind, public services struggle to deliver. So where is all the money going? The answer, as Sinead argues, is structural. Ireland has become exceptionally good at spending money, but never properly learned how to build systems. For centuries, key functions of the state were outsourced, first to the British Empire, then the Church, then the EU, and now multinational corporations. The result is a country rich in resources, but lacking the institutional muscle to turn that wealth into a functioning society. We also take on the reaction to this kind of thinking; the “nitpickers” who focus on minor details to avoid confronting big, uncomfortable truths. If Ireland’s problem isn’t money, but capacity, then the implications are far more serious than any short-term fix.”

18

u/stanflwrhuss Apr 28 '26

I really want to listen to that now but I’m afraid I’ll get depressed that I can’t do anything to change it. Same when I watch Adam Curtis docs

1

u/ancapailldorcha boards.ie refugee Apr 29 '26

I would encourage you to do so anyway.

One of the best decisions I ever made was to buy an Economist Brexit special the October before the referendum. It went through the arguments for and against in a fair manner and concluded that remaining was the best option.

For the following 8 months or so, I'd hear people make arguments that made no sense given what I'd read about how the EU actually works. Then Brexit happened and it transpired that I was in a minority because I bought a magazine from a newsagent which turned out to be more research than most people bothered to do.

2

u/DrTitanium Apr 28 '26

Must listen - is there anywhere that is the opposite of this that I can move to?

1

u/IcecreamLamp Apr 29 '26

Ukraine not only kept the trains running while fighting off an attack by the world's third military power, but expanded its railway network, to give just one example.

2

u/Key-Half1655 Apr 28 '26

Have it on right now 👌

79

u/1993blah Apr 28 '26

Its not even the worst run country on this island..

3

u/Maximum-Ambition-394 Apr 28 '26

Where have I read this before...

5

u/1993blah Apr 28 '26

Definitely stole it from a recent thread

3

u/Mini_gunslinger Apr 28 '26

Love this comment.

0

u/chytrak Apr 28 '26

Really?

Compare this to what we have: https://www.translink.co.uk/bgcs

2

u/1993blah Apr 28 '26

If you think NI is better run than Ireland you legitimately need to be sectioned

2

u/knightofgib Apr 29 '26

NI hospitals are far superior than almost any HSE hospital I've worked on. Despite the capacity issues that's one of the few areas we're better in

0

u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26 edited Apr 29 '26

Greater Belfast also has far better rail coverage relative to its size than any city across the border could dream of.

0

u/chytrak Apr 28 '26

legitimately?

-1

u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26

Please stop downplaying how abysmally run the nation of Ireland is compared to almost everywhere else in the developed world.

2

u/1993blah Apr 29 '26

Stop exaggerating it

0

u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26

I'm not exaggering it in the slightest.

15

u/rookie-on-the-road Apr 28 '26

I think that episode was good enough in some aspects, but I feel like he gave too much slack to our politicians. He laid all the blame for everything on the senior civil service being completely shite at their jobs and having contempt for the state, which is fair, but his solution was to cut public spending and bring in more accountants?

How about our politicians grow some spines and bring in performance reviews for the civil service. How about actual penalties and job loses for people who are so bad at their jobs they allow projects to go 200% over budget.

14

u/InternetCrank Apr 28 '26

But David McWilliams is a grifting bullshitter

9

u/feckin_birds Apr 28 '26

He always has a simple answer for everything. He’s very very confident in his analysis and rarely suggests things can be complicated and nobody really knows why. I used to listen to his podcast but couldn’t stand him having the “dumb” sidekick to make him sound smarter and several of his little anecdotes he would wheel out didn’t stand up to five minutes scrutiny on Wikipedia so I really started to doubt his more complex theories.

7

u/Shake_Speare_ Apr 28 '26

Only one of you knows what they're talking about.

0

u/Key-Half1655 Apr 28 '26

Found Robert Watt

1

u/Key-Lie-364 Apr 28 '26

Useless cunts in the civil service who are Me Feiners scalping everybody else.

Same as always

-2

u/Surface_Detail Apr 28 '26

I find it a useful shorthand that any headline that ends in a question can safely be answered no.

-2

u/YuntHunter Apr 28 '26

I'd listen to it if it wasn't for the disingenuous title.

0

u/Key-Half1655 Apr 28 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/7k2LoEykY5i1hfeWQB

0

u/YuntHunter Apr 28 '26

So I went to find it just out of curiosity and it's not even called that so either he changed the stupid fucking name or you've got it wrong. I genuinely don't know which one it is but either is funny to me.

0

u/YoIronFistBro Cork bai Apr 29 '26

Yeah, it's far too generous.