At the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness. On the cranky left, that is very annoying; I can see that.

It's annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren't they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

I'm not really wise. But I can be cranky.

I'm a maverick. I've always been a maverick.

I've always been an eccentric, a rocker at heart. I can't play the guitar, but I can play the griddle.

There is fairly strong evidence that employment in the Irish economy is concentrated in low productivity activities such as construction and the public sector. It is clear that wider technology diffusion is the corrective factor needed to avoid us sleepwalking into a competitiveness demise.