ABSTRACT
As normality returned after the war, the development challenge had to be taken up afresh. There was considerable innovation in economic policy in the next decade or so, but not all of these developments came to fruition until later. Serious structural weaknesses had to be overcome, and policies to deal with these took time to devise and implement, and even longer to bear fruit. Progress was retarded by the fact that the initial phase of fiscal expansion in the years 1947–51 was followed by a deflationary fiscal stance for most of the remainder of the 1950s. Ireland's overall growth performance in the 1950s was one of the worst in Europe, emigration reached record levels for this century, and confidence about the viability of the economy reached an all-time low.
