John Walsh: If we want to survive the tax regime change, we have to start with fixing the parlous state of third-level funding

The ecosystem for research and development, and innovation, which are crucial to FDI, is underdeveloped but there is no political consensus on how to fill the gaping hole in the financing of education

The feedback from multinational executives is that if Ireland wants to maintain its attractiveness in the future, then improvements have to be made to supports for research and development and innovation. Picture: Getty Images

Paul Krugman, the New York Times columnist, has deployed the term “leprechaun economics” to describe the Irish economy on a number of occasions over the past few years. Incredibly, he seemed to find this amusing until it was pointed out to him earlier this year that racial tropes are considered offensive. But that is an aside.

Krugman was feeding into a wider narrative about Ireland that has formed over the past couple of decades. When ...