Taoiseach Brian Cowen today said an analysis that the current crisis in the economy was a result of over-reliance on the building boom was "futile and facile".
Addressing an Engineers Ireland conference in Dublin this afternoon Mr Cowen said Ireland’s achievements over recent decades should not be relegated by those “who would suggest that this country is little more then a building site with a flag at its mast”.
He added: “this country is a far more sophisticated and diverse economy than that”.
Mr Cowen said: “Even the people who were talking about the reliance on construction as representing 14 percent of output, as being too high . . . that indicates there has been 86 per cent of output in the Irish economy which has been totally ignored in this debate in trying to assess where we go from here.
In his address to mark Engineers Week 2009, Mr Cowen said the current gap in public finances would be addressed through taking advantage of the recession to invest in infrastructure, while encouraging areas such as the green economy and innovation.
“We need to keep faith with what we have achieved”, said Mr Cowen, adding that future challenges must be faced with “resilience, capacity and intelligence”.
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