The Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has said he does not believe the current turmoil in world stock markets will have a bad effect on the Irish economy.
Speaking on the News At One, Brian Cowen said the fundamentals of the Irish economy were strong, and the country was well-poised to take on the international challenges ahead.
He said the country had a dynamic workforce and strong public finances. Mr Cowen also said he had compiled the recent Budget taking all of the risk factors into account.
Minister Cowen said he believed inflationary pressures should moderate, but what had happened on world markets in recent weeks needed to be analysed and assessed.
He approved of the way the European Central Bank and other central banks had intervened, and believed the actions had been viewed favourably in other parts of the world.
The Minister said that as a small economy, Ireland was more exposed than most to the problems in the US, and needed to look at improving competitiveness and productivity.
Brian Cowen said the upcoming pay talks were important, but that people needed to keep an eye on the big picture and not put job security at risk when agreeing pay rises.
