Ireland Is Rapidly Becoming Just As Bad As Greece

"Barry O’Leary argues that in contrast to the other PIIGS, Ireland will be able to make the adjustments that the EMU is demanding and by cutting “fiscal spending sharply … [to] … pull themselves out of this mess through austerity”. He’s wrong.
People calling for fiscal austerity assume that major cuts can be made in public spending at a time when private sector spending has collapsed, confidence is at a low, and foreign direct investment is weak and paralysed by uncertainty. They also think that you can increase taxes (that is, reduce private demand further) and cut wages (and hence private incomes) and not expect major multiplier effects to make things significantly worse.
The Irish also seem to have bought the IMF line that the fiscal multipliers are relatively low and that the automatic stabilisers (working to increase deficits as GDP falls) will not drown out the discretionary cuts in net spending arising from the austerity packages.
The overwhelming evidence shows that the implementation of policies based on this way of thinking causes generational damages in lost output, lost incomes, bankruptcy and lost employment (especially in denying new entrants from the schooling system a robust start to their working life)."

at http://www.businessinsider.com/ireland-is-rapidly-becoming-just-as-bad-as-greece-2010-6