Ceisteanna ar Pholasaí nó ar Reachtaíocht - Questions on Policy or Legislation Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21 ============================================================ Jim O'Callaghan (FF), Dublin Bay South I thank Deputy Timmins for that question. It is important that we acknowledge that reference in a very prestigious magazine such as The Economist that Ireland is the second most successful economy in the world. It also has to be acknowledged that did not happen by chance. It happened because of political decisions made by previous Governments in this country to adapt our economy in such a way that it attracts outside investment while at the same time supporting indigenous industry in the country. Sometimes listening to people in this Chamber one would not think that was the case in respect of the country but it is an extremely successful country. Economic confidence in this country exists inside it and outside it as well. The Deputy makes a point about it being the second most successful economy but it has also been publicly reported in the Global Peace Index that Ireland is the second most peaceful country in the world. That was for 2025. Only Iceland was ahead of us. Sometimes we need to look at how people outside perceive us in order to get an accurate assessment of how successful the country is. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-01-21