Under the troika Ireland has endured round after round of austerity. Because of this Ireland is often held up as a role model for austerity, implying that things are getting better and that austerity is working. As ex-ECB head Jean Claude Trichet put it in 2010, “Greece has a role model and that role model is Ireland.” But if one looks at the economic consequences of the bust and the bailout, it’s hard to see the recovery.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 632