Expert predicts economic recovery will be ‘excruciatingly slow’

One of the country’s top economists has warned that Ireland’s financial recovery will be “excruciatingly slow” as long as social distancing measures remain in place – and even with restrictions eased, it would be naïve to think that things will return to anything like they were in February anytime soon.

NUI Galway Professor Alan Ahearne acknowledged that a significant number of businesses would not survive this economic crash, and while the objective would be to ensure as many businesses as possible would re-open, the pace of recovery would be painfully slow until a vaccine providing immunity was rolled-out.

“There will be a couple of years of recovery before we get back to anything close to full employment,” said Prof Ahearne, who is Chair of the Central Bank Risk Committee and who served as an advisor to former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan in the midst of the last economic crash.

However, while there were many challenges facing Irish workers and businesses, there were opportunities too – particularly in the area of how people do their work and the switch to remote working for large numbers of workers, albeit an enforced switch for the duration of the pandemic.

It’s for that reason that the Whitaker Institute for Innovation and Social Change at NUIG, of which Prof Ahearne is the director, has teamed up with the Western Development Commission to create an online survey to gather data on employees’ experience of remote working as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

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