ABSTRACT
The 'Celtic Tiger' is frequently cited as an exemplar of how effective use of EC structural and cohesion funding promoted national economic growth and regional and local development. By 2001, GDP per head in Ireland (in terms of purchasing power standards) was 17 per cent above the EU15 average (CEC, 2004: 2). EC membership is seen as having underpinned Ireland's economic success, although a more nuanced account would need to consider a range of other functions, including a succession of corporatist partnership agreements, growth-oriented policies, budgetary austerity in the late 1980s, an inflow of foreign direct investment and the internal market programme.
