1） 介绍——Introduction
还没有在爱尔兰加入欧洲联盟以后，欧盟的其他国家在经历这种经济过山车。在 20 年之内的最贫穷的欧洲国家从一个农业国到高科技和 IT的一个位置的发展仅仅是个开始。
在接下来的这些年中，爱尔兰关于失业率与经济增长为欧洲联盟设立了一个榜样。不幸的是"凯尔特之虎"使政府和经济机构越来越多地冒险、 傲慢和贪婪。当局在该国历史上带来了国家和人民的最严重的经济灾难之一。
自 2010 年 11 月 21 日，童话般的"凯尔特之虎"接近尾声，然而不只是与爱尔兰，也是对欧洲联盟整个金融系统的负面影响。
Through my remarks below, I try to explain and point out the reasons of the crisis. Additionally I would like to give an outlook which impact the economical meltdown had and has for Ireland and its habitants.
2) 主要部分——Main part
2. 1) Ireland: Europe's poor house
On 1st January 1973, Ireland joined the European Economic Community ( ECC ) together with Great Britain, after 83% of the voters supported the referendum on 10th March 1972. The country nearly had no industry but a huge agricultural background. The government subsidised almost exclusively farmers which led to a dead end for young people and an emigration rate of nearly 40.000 people per year. The reason why politicians kept on financing nearly only the agriculture, is visible while looking at the Irish governments since 1932. Between 1932 and 1982, Fianna Fáil was continuously at power. The party was re-elected for 50 years, so why should they change their policy? Inside the ECC, Dublin advanced to one of the biggest net recipients of European money for more than a decade.
2. 2) The "Celtic Tiger"
Due to the ECC membership, Ireland was able to reach a level of subvention for its agriculture, the national budget never would have been able to handle. In the early Eighties, the government rethought the political approach of mainly subsidising agricultural companies or projects and started to initiate a development for the future.
Dublin began to promote modern industries, for example the IT- branch, and developed its infrastructure, mainly in the west of the country. An improvement of the school system led to a better educational standard of the young population and to better chances on the employment market (40-50% of all entrants have a degree, 80% a secondary school degree).
The liberalisation of the economical system and low business tax rates were introduced as well.
1Cohesion funding of the ECC were used to refinance a business tax rate of 12.5%, compared for example to Germany's 38.7%, resulted in high investment by international companies, mainly from the United States of America (US). In addition to the legal improvements, you have to consider that the Irish Industrial Development Authority was very skilled in attracting foreign companies. For example multinational companies such as Intel, Google, IBM, Pfizer, etc invested nearly a‚¬7 billion in Ireland. [2] Unit labour costs of 36% (Germany 80-90%) and a top income tax rate of 42% were beneficial for foreign investments, too, but the biggest factor for the economical growth was the access to the European Single Market.
Another plus factor was the 1987 introduced social pact which is reconditioned every three years. This treaty is negotiated between trade unions and the government. Trade unions accept moderate wage increases and the government promises to decrease taxes and to optimise social services.
Summarizing those facts led to following picture for foreign investors and made Ireland to one the biggest software exporters of the world: liberal tax and law system, pleasant business climate, young, flexible and well educated work force in one of the few European countries where the population was growing.
3All Irish governments after 1987 drove a responsible budget- and debt reducing- policy. Between 1987 and 2000 a budget deficit of 13% of the gross national product (GNP) was converted to a surplus of 4%. The national debt, which was 130% of the GNP was reduced under 40%. Compared to other countries, those numbers were not a result of a slow economical growth or a higher unemployment rate. The annual gross domestic product (GDP) grew from practically 0% to more than 10%, the unemployment rate decreased from 18% to 4% and the per capita income rose to 110%
