The best way to evaluate national success or failure is by comparison, especially by those closest to us. This makes the CSO report Measuring Ireland's Progress 2005 a most useful document (download here in PDF) As well as showing developments over time, the report benchmarks the situation in Ireland against the other EU Member States. The Irish Times report is here and another summary can be read here.
Both Fine Gael and the Greens comment on the fact that some 21 per cent were deemed to be at risk of poverty in 2004, compared with an EU average of 16 per cent. It provides contradictory evidence on Ireland's income relative to the EU, and confirms that the proportion of people at risk of poverty remains one of the highest. Additional findings of the survey confirm that the State's competitiveness has deteriorated significantly since 2000. There's a lot of material to digest here and much hard statistical data that should stir even the most complacent.
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