A Lesson from Ireland? (July 5, 2005)

    New You Times columnist Thomas Friedman recently spent some time in Ireland and was impressed by what he learned.

Here's something you probably didn't know: Ireland today is the richest country in the European Union after Luxembourg.

    Yes, the country that for hundreds of years was best known for emigration, tragic poets, famines, civil wars and leprechauns today has a per capita G.D.P. higher than that of Germany, France and Britain.

Mr. Friedman may be slightly off the mark, but not by much. According to The World Factbook Ireland (13 in world rankings) comes in just behind Denmark which is also an EU member.

In any case the real point Friedman makes in his June 29 column is:

Ireland's advice is very simple: Make high school and college education free; make your corporate taxes low, simple and transparent; actively seek out global companies; open your economy to competition; speak English; keep your fiscal house in order; and build a consensus around the whole package with labor and management - then hang in there, because there will be bumps in the road - and you, too, can become one of the richest countries in Europe.

    "It wasn't a miracle, we didn't find gold," said [Deputy Prime Minister]  Mary Harney. "It was the right domestic policies and embracing globalization."

Of course the Cayman Islands aren't noted for free university education but then it has other inducements.