The Country That Said Yes

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Ireland, from inside the euro-zone, is booming. As inflation soars and wage pressures grow, are there any regrets?

The Republic of Ireland, firmly inside the single currency, has done terribly well out of Europe. It is the most outstanding example of material success in the rich world. It is growing by something between 7 and 9 per cent a year. Its unemployment, at around 16 per cent in the early 1990s, is now less than 4 percent. It scours the British Isles for more labour. Each Sunday, the ferry from Hollyhead to Dun Laoghaire is full with workers from Wales, going to spend a week working in Dublin -- a reverse of the pattern that prevailed for much of the past century. Ireland now "imports" a net 20,000 people a year, many of whom are returning exiles.

Dublin house prices now reach London levels -- and even, in some areas, exceed them. Inward investment, especially from the United States, continues to boom: among the attractions are low corporate taxation and an increasingly skilled workforce, in whose education, especially computer skills, the government has invested strongly. The country, with a population of 3.7 million, has one-third of Europe's bandwidth capacity and more than one-third of its inward high tech investment. The Dublin-based Baltimore Technologies is one of Europe's most successful software houses, buying up companies in the UK and on the Continent at the rate of one a month. The Massachusetts …