In his latest, broadly positive economic outlook for Friends First, Jim Power has warned that internal and external political threats could compromise Ireland's economic recovery.
A passage from a statement accompanying the report reads:
"There is nothing better than meaningful employment creation to start solving social and financial problems. Ireland is moving in the right direction and sensible people around the country need to ensure that the anti-business hard left are not allowed to derail the progress that is being made."
Left politics
While speaking to Breakfast Business this morning he was invited by Newstalk's business editor Vincent Wall to elaborate on this statement.
When asked if this meant that anyone who does not vote "centre right is not sensible" he cited the success of the Conservatives in the recent UK general election, and the progress made in Ireland, and said:
"It would be very, very dangerous to shift policy tact at this stage because it could seriously derail the economic recovery. I look at some of the economic policy platforms out there and I have to say there is a lot of anti-business sentiment."
He continued to warn, "If you demonise people who create employment, well then you have a problem in my view."
The economist also comments that "the growing proliferation of Independents" will make it more difficult to form a Government after the next General Election.
He says: "Political stability has been a key factor in selling Ireland to international investors in recent years and this is now under threat. The Irish electorate needs to be very careful not to undermine the progress that has been made in very difficult circumstances since the economy crashed."
Good News
The Friends First publication predicts that Ireland will be the strongest performing economy in the EU in 2015 with GDP growing by 4.5 percent while GNP expands by 4 percent.
The economist says that there is no denying that the Irish recovery is real but that there are "reservations about it in terms of the geographical spread [and] in terms of the ongoing fragility of the consumer side of the economy."
Ultimately, he labels the performance of the economy as a "good news story."
The politics of public pay
Mr Power describes the Government’s decision to award public sector wage increases as "worrying."
Saying that, "A gradual easing of the personal tax burden, particularly for low to middle-income workers would be the most appropriate policy measure to pursue, rather than increasing public sector pay and generally increasing government expenditure."
“Increasing public sector pay will add to the cost of running the country and will feed through to the private sector, which in turn could undermine Ireland’s cost competitiveness," he continues.
When asked by Newstalk if this public pay deal was a cynical move by The Labour Party he replied:
"Of course it is - absolutely. There is not doubt about it," he says that it is intended to win back voters for the party in the lead-up to Ireland's next General Election.
