THE troika aren't our friends. They are not here to help Ireland. They are here to protect the interests of the creditor countries to whom Ireland is in debt. Ireland's banks must be saved to prevent any contagion to other core countries' banking systems.

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Sometimes, caricatures of this austerity-at-all-costs argument come to the fore. David Begg, General Secretary of the Irish Confederation of Trade Unions, recently said that "the troika has done more damage to Ireland than England ever did in 800 years".

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But it's not at all credible to say that Ireland's experience from 2010 to today is comparable to 800 years of British rule. You just can't compare the two.

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But without the troika, Ireland would have had to drop its government spending by more than 20pc in one year, not over five years. That's the big difference. The correction would still have had to be made, but much, much more quickly, and without giving people time to adjust. I'm no fan of the austerity approach, but the troika aren't the ones imposing it on us. Simple accounting has dictated it. We'd have had to do it ourselves, in some shape or form.