A WORLD economic recovery beginning in 2011 would make possible a major reduction in Irish unemployment by 2015, a leading economist told a conference in Castlebar, Co Mayo.
The one-day forum, Ireland: A New Vision and Direction, was organised to mark the opening of the Rev Prof Enda McDonagh Library at the Castlebar campus of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.
Prof John FitzGerald of the Economic and Social Research Institute, in a paper delivered on his behalf by his wife Eithne, predicted that for the very many businesses that survived the recession there would be very considerable spare capacity. “Without any further investment they will be able to ramp up output in the recovery phase once world demand begins to recover,” he said. There was no certainty that world recovery would begin next year as forecast.
In the recovery phase, growth rates of 5-6 per cent were likely. This would not be a return to the heady days of the 1990s but would reflect a restoration of only some of the losses sustained over the period 2008-2010. Prof McDonagh, a leading theologian and author who is a native of Co Mayo, has donated his personal library and papers, numbering about 20,000 volumes, to the campus. Former president Mary Robinson performed the official opening of the library.