The President of the Workers’ Party Michael Finnegan has said that the real measure of whether a state of recession exists or not is the effect of the economy on people.

Mr. Finnegan said that basing the presence or otherwise of an economic recession could not be measured based purely on the balance of payments, particularly when that balance of payments is heavily influenced by the profits of multinationals, profits which were being expropriated from this country.

“The real measure of the economic state of this country”, said Mr. Finnegan, “is the 452,000 people on the unemployment Live Register, the continuing outflow of people and talent from this country and the ongoing cuts in services such as health and education”.

The Workers’ Party President said that the government’s spin doctors had seen one stray swallow on the economic horizon had had not only seen a summer but an imminent heat wave.  “This ‘end of recession’ talk is a pure mirage. The continuing growth in unemployment and the haemorrhaging of young people from this country is the true test of the state of the place and anyone who is not blinkered by pseudo economics can see otherwise”, he said.

Issued 30th June 2010