What is the feeling of people in Ireland (Eire) about the inflation and the euro ?

This question is specific to irish people (or long time residents) because Eire is the only country in "Euroland" where the exchange parity between the old currency unit (punt) and the new euro is inferior to 1 (exactly 0,787564). It means that at the beginning of 2002, the nominal wages in punts had to be increased to be converted in euros. At the same time in France, our own wages and incomes were divided to a 6,55957 : 1 ratio (in Spain or in Italy, it was worse, of course...).

Of course, the value is the same but on the continent, people share the feeling to be poorer, and in despite of official figures, believe that prices had a sharp rise (for some specific products, it is not totally wrong...). Taking in account the specificity of the irish ratio exchange, I'm looking for concrete testimonies about how "normal" people experienced the use of our common currency unit. Thank you for all your answers, I'm really interested with that !

Answer:
The figures looked better, but the cost of living has shot up in Ireland over the past ten years, long before the introduction of the euro, and shot up again shortly after the euro came in, so the outcome is that the €50 seems to be the same as the old £20, and it's not worth tuppence!
I can't BELIEVE how much cheaper Spain is compared to Ireland - a €50 in the supermarket will get you a decent amount of stuff in Spain, in Ireland, you can hardly support yourself for €50 a day for food.
So we feel much poorer too, despite the higher figures!

http://www.finfacts.com/irelandbusinessn...

They are Irish they don't understand such complicated things. It's not Guiness.

Since the €uro came out everything has gone crazy with prices. We thought we had nothing with the punt. A few groceries can cost anything up to €100. The cost of living is terrible. Things you got free with the punt like car parking spaces you pay for everything now even plastic bags that you get for groceries. Houses are too expensive for the younger generation to buy. My sister, her husband and their family are in a one bedroom flat, they can't afford a house. The unemployment rate is very high. I am in training for the past 4 years. I have papers but I have to stay in training because I can't get a job and I need money coming in to pay the bills. People here hate the €uro, but i guess we will have to stick with it.

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What is the feeling of people in Ireland (Eire) about the inflation and the euro ?

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