Dr Michael Smurfit, the former chief executive of the Jefferson Smurfit Group, has said he believes the Irish economy is recovering and that Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has "proven his mettle".

Speaking last night at the launch of his autobiography A Life Worth Living , Dr Smurfit said Mr Noonan had taken "over a dodgy ship and steered it into calmer waters".

"This has been the mother and father of all recessions," Dr Smurfit said. He said Ireland was "extremely unlucky" that its property bubble burst at exactly the same moment that the international banking system collapsed. "We are going into new territory now, five years from now we will look back and say what was that all about?"

Dr Smurfit said he had invested in four Irish start-ups recently and he believed it was this generation of entrepreneurs who would lead the economy to recovery. "There is no reason why the next Facebook, Twitter or Google cannot come from Ireland."

He said: “Ireland as a country for decades has punched above its weight in the arts and sport . . . there is no reason why we can’t do the same in business.”

O'Brien tribute
At the launch Denis O'Brien, the billionaire founder of Digicel, said: "Michael was the first man to create a global multinational that was headquartered in Dublin. He combined the drive of an entrepreneur and the ability to manage."

Mr O’Brien said Dr Smurfit had created an “A-team” to manage his international packaging and paper business from his family and outside.

He added that Dr Smurfit's son Tony Smurfit, Smurfit Kappa's chief operating officer, had also made an "incredible mark on the company".

Mr O’Brien said Mr Smurfit had invested £1.5 million in a television business he was involved with as a young man and supported him even when the business struggled. “My life would be a very different one if I had not got a vote of confidence from Michael.”

Billionaire financier Dermot Desmond paid tribute to Dr Smurfit's philanthropy and support of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. He also praised him for his role in bringing the Ryder Cup to Ireland in 2006. "When Michael says he wants something, Michael gets it."

Telecom vision
Mr Desmond also said that if Dr Smurfit had not had the "vision" to invest in advance telecommunications networks in the 1980s while chairman of Telecom Éireann, he believed the International Financial Services Centre would not have gotten off the ground. "I just don't think it would have happened."

Attendees at a packed launch included Laurence Crowley, the former governor of Bank of Ireland; Michael Carey, the food entrepreneur; Emer Gilvarry of law firm Mason Hayes & Curran; John Mulcahy, the ex-head of asset management at Nama; and businessman Paddy McKillen.

Developers Bernard McNamara and Gerry Gannon along with Independent TD Michael Lowry were also in attendance.