The quality of economic management is relative, and is more than just a matter of direct Government action. The IDA's performance has been world class, and liberal economic theory has never given adequate credit to the role of Ireland's industrial relations infrastructure. The EU has also been enormously helpful, as much by enforcing good social and employment practices and access to wider markets as by direct subventions. We should also not forget the fact that 50 years of extensive US multinational presence in Ireland has helped create two generations of management cadres many of whom have gone on to establish their own not insubstantial businesses.

Index of Frank's Diaries