Members of the public give their opinions on the news that the Irish economy is technically out of recession.
Figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is up by 2.7 per cent for the first three months of the year. When multinational profits are excluded, there was a decline of 0.5 per cent during the same period. In addition, the number of people unemployed is at the highest level ever.
While on paper the economy is out of recession many people are not yet seeing a change to their circumstances.
The economy may just have emerged from recession, but for most people, this improvement is just a statistic, and the hard times are far from over.
For people on the streets of Dublin, the statistics do not mean anything and will not until they feel the impact in their own pockets. One commented,
I have no job and no money in my purse.
Other people think there are signs that there is some improvement starting to happen.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 30 June 2010. The reporter is Sandra Hurley.
