TWICE THE SIZE - DIT Update - Dublin Institute of Technology

3.3 Potential
“The full extent of Ireland’s potential is massive, particularly given the size of Diaspora and of
current world migration flows. As far as Ireland is concerned, we are at the end of the
beginning, not the beginning of the end.” (Coleman, 2007:4)
Ireland’s potential for the future may be considered from multiple perspectives. Marc Coleman,
in his newest book The Best is Yet to Come (2007), argues that Ireland’s comparatively low
population density (Fig. 11) means that Ireland is rich in a resource that is becoming scarce
elsewhere – habitable land located in a part of world where prosperity, the rule of law and free
and fair government are strong. This combined with the supply-push pressures being the
consequences of the high rate of the global population growth, means that Irish population will
continue to grow in the future.
Figure 11: What if Ireland was as Densely Populated as …? (Coleman, 2007)
The NCB economists, Eunan King and Dermot O’Brien, came up with the idea of the
demographic dividend – as Ireland’s population rises, demand for a wide range of goods and
services also rises, which in turn increases economic output (NCB, 2006). The recent increase in
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