IRELAND HAS OFFICIALLY COME OUT OF RECESSION – AHERN

The news that Ireland has officially come out of recession has been welcomed by Cork East TD Michael Ahern.  The Central Statistics Office has released figures for the first quarter of 2010 which show that the economy grew by 2.7%.

“We were actually the fastest growing economy in the OECD between January and March of this year,” said Deputy Ahern.  “This is important as it means that the economy is no longer in recession and that we will now see the economy starting to grow.  Having an economy on the up helps attract more investment and deliver more jobs.”

“The Department of Finance expected the economy to decline by 1.25%, so to be experiencing growth at this point means that we are doing better than expected.  It shows that the Government’s actions in tackling the economic problems head on are working.”

“When you also look at the consumer confidence since April there are signs that we can be more positive.  If we can build on this and keep the economy growing then people will start to feel the benefits.  I know it’s very difficult still for many people and that many families are still struggling.  But we can now start to see some light at the end of the tunnel.  The next step will be to make sure this growth translates into more local jobs,” Deputy Ahern concluded.