Rural areas can no longer depend on IDA to save them

Capital values increased on Grafton Street by 28pc in 2014

Richard Curran

During the boom we measured our economic success by counting the number of cranes on the urban skyline or the number of jumbo breakfast rolls sold at filling stations around the country.

In 2015, we measure economic recovery by counting the cars and vans belting up the main roads towards Dublin at about 7am on a Monday morning.