City Ville Guide

1 - Political Status
Ireland is a republic with a parliamentary regime. It is a pluralistic democracy with a president, the present one is Ms Mary McAleese, who was elected on 31st October 1997 for a seven year term of office.
The President is assisted by a Prime Minister, who holds executive power, the present Prime Minister is Berthie Ahern, elected on 1st June 1997. The Prime Minister is responsible towards Parliament. Parliament is made up of the Chamber of Representatives, the Dail, with 166 members elected by general election every five years, and the Senate, the Seanad, with 60 members, 11 of whom are nominated by the Prime Minister, 43 designated by socio-professional organizations and 6 who represent the universities.

The Fianna Fail is the nationalist party, the Fine Gael is the centrist party and the Sinn Fein is the political branch of the IRA (Irish Republican Army).

The Irish Republic is administratively divided into 26 counties.

In the north six counties make up Northern Ireland.

Connemara is not a province, nor even a county, it is a region situated on the extreme west of the county of Galway.

Ireland is a member of the European Union, the UN (since 1955), IAEA, IBRD, UNCTAD, EEE, FAO, IMF (since 1957), GATT (since 1967), OEDC, ILO, WHO, UNDC, UNESCO and UNICEF.

Historical outline :

Ireland was inhabited by the Celts from the 4th century BC.
The Gaels, well armed warriors, arrived later and dominated the country, dividing it up into small kingdoms which were then regrouped into bigger territories : Ulster, South Leinster, North Leinster, Connacht and Munster.

Ireland's golden age took place in the period during which it was under church influence but also under a cultural and artistic influence. This period came to an end with the Scandinavian invasions in the 7th and the 9th centuries.

2 - Geographical situation


The centre of the country is a large plain edged with mountain chains. This plain in places is uneven, it is covered in lakes and drained by the Shannon River which is the longest river in the country.
To the west of the river is a chalk desert, the Burren, composed of caves and underground waterways.

The mountain reliefs of Wicklow, situated in the east, rise behind the capital and stretch down to Carlow and Wexford.
Other mountains continue down the east coast as far as Kerry

From Galway on the west coast up to Donegal there are lakes, mountains and valleys.
The highest mountain in Ireland is Carrantuohill, which peaks at 1040 meters and is situated in the region of Kerry.

You can never be further than 96 kms from the sea.

3 - Economy
The country is going through a period of enormous economic growth.
Over the last years the economic debt has been regressing, whereas it was still very high in 1995. In 2000 the economic growth rate was 11%, which is the highest rate recorded among the 19 western European countries. Ireland has the most dynamic economy in the zone. A part of the reason for this is that it is at last catching up with the rest of Europe, having been for years one of the poorest countries.

Today Ireland can be classified as a rich country with a GDP per capita of 19,160 USD in 1999.

The growth has taken place in a context of stability : the public finances are healthy thanks to considerable efforts made since 1987. Household consumption is healthy.

The country's economy has developed due to the massive surge of foreign investment, particularly in computer sciences, attracted by a very attractive fiscal policy and by structural European capital. 6% of the Irish population is working in computer sciences today, that is more than in California. A targeted industrial policy has been helpful in attracting foreign companies in well-defined sectors : electronics, computer sciences, pharmaceuticals and financial services - 1,117 companies have been set up in Ireland, 465 of which are American. 40% of American investment in Europe goes to Ireland.

The major risk is inflation (which is nearly 7%), not only because of the high growth rate but also because of the appreciation of the pound sterling, the UK is Ireland's main commercial partner. The latest salary negociations ended up with a hike of 15% over three years. Because of the rise in the price of rents in Dublin, which has gone up on average by 30%, the municipality can't find civil servants, who are too poorly paid to live in the capital.

As from 2003 Ireland will finally become a contributor to the European Union, after having received over 200 billion francs from it during the last twenty years.

Unemployment is at its lowest level since 17 years, the country has created more jobs over the last three years than in the 30 years before that. Labour is even starting to run short in sectors which are not highly qualified and poorly paid.

The main economic indicators

(in percentage)	1997	1998	1999	2000
economic growth	10.7	8.9	8.6	11.0
consumption (variation)	7.3	7.4	7.8	6.5
investment (variation)	17.4	16.8	11.6	8.9
inflation	2.5	3.7	3.8	7.0
rate of unemployment	10.3	7.6	5.8	3.7
short term interest rate	6.1	5.4	2.9	3.3
public balance /GDP	0.6	2.2	3.4	3.8
public debt/GDP	62.3	52.6	43.9	35.7
exports (variation)	17.0	20.5	11.8	10.7
Imports (variation)	16.1	23.2	12.0	10.4
balance of trade (billions $)	18.6	23.4	25.9	28.3
tourism revenue (billions $)	3.189	3.252	-	-
foreign investment (billions $)	2.743	2.920	4.385	-

(source OECD)

The division of the GDP between the main sectors of activity :
agriculture : 5.7%
industry : 33.8%
services : 60.6%

4 - Agriculture
The main agricultural revenue in Ireland comes from livestock, 80% of the country is pasture land and 88% of the total agricultural production is stock breeding. Ireland produced 7,093,000 head of cattle and
5,624,000 sheep in 2000. It is the fifth biggest cattle producer per inhabitant in the world. This sector is suffering from the 'mad cow' crisis which has lowered the market value and is causing havoc throughout Europe.

Crop growing, which is a much smaller production concerns principally barley, which covers 18% of the total farmed land. This crop gives a satisfactory return, 6,000 kgs/hectare (compared to 5,439 in France).

Another important sector in the country's economy is fishing. In 1997 329,000 tons of fish were caught, which represents 88 kgs per person in the country (compared to France where the catches for the same year represented 14 kgs per person).

2.26 million cubic meters of timber were cut in 1998. With only 8% of the territory covered in forests, Ireland is the country the least forested in Europe, but the productivity remains very high.

Agricultural income, disturbed by the lowering of prices in the cattle market, is becoming more and more dependent on direct aid from the EU. It represents 5.2% of the GDP and the sector employs 8.7% of the working population. This figure is continually dropping because of the growth in the other sectors.

Agriculture
(in millions of tons, head, wood in millions of m³ )

Production	1997	1998	1999
wheat	0.725	0.673	0.611
wood	2.180	2.266	-
barley	1.087	1.073	1.275
potatoes	0.472	0.482	0.500
cattle	6.757	6.992	7.093
sheep	5.391	5.634	5.624
pigs	1.665	1.717	1.801
fish	0.329	-	-

 5 - Industry
Industry is concentrated on high tech sectors and focused on exportation.
Exports of goods and commodities represented 76% of the GDP in 1996 compared to 53% in 1986.
In March 2000 Ireland became the leading exporter in the world of computor software, beating the USA and Singapore.
The main industrial sectors are transport and foodstuffs, each of which contribute 27% of the total of the industrial added value.
The developement of the modern sectors is encouraged - computor sciences, pharmaceutical products, electrical construction and the preparation of syrups for soft drinks, representing 60% of the manufacturing production.

Mining does not bring in a very big income. The main minerals extracted are zinc (206 thousand tons in 1999), lead (48 thousand tons in 1998) and natural gas which is exploited in Kinsale and Ballycotton.