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Ireland coming out stronger ? By what measure ? They still have a massive nationalised debt burden that will continue to weigh on the country for many years to come, the banks are barely lending, roads are in a jock, health sector is a mess and schools aren't what they used to be. Marginal tax rate at the top end is over 50% and they still run a welfare economy. House prices are back on the rise and the man on the street is hardly better off. And here we are on the cusp of the next 'crisis' - stronger is an illusion in my view. I think to some extent people have simply become more used to stumbling along the bottom having been there for so long and the Irish economy is no longer one of the dirtiest shirts in the laundry basket.