Well the irish economy is substantially smaller now. The Irish government is still at serious risk of default, hence its higher credit default spreads. The UK economy is larger than Irelands but it suffers from a banking system grossly larger than needed for the economy. It has overall foreign assets and liabilities of £4600 billion which is considerably larger than the UK economy of around £1400 billion. Though its potential losses overall are low because of the variety of its assets. Irish banks were heavily involved in Irish property bubbles which why they have all suffered badly.

UK banks losses from property because the bubble here was not as extreme as the Irish property bubble. Also our government did not make the mistake of guaranteeing everyone so dropping the tax payer on the debt spike. The governments claim that we were on the brink of bankruptcy is a lie. Yes a reduction in spending was necessary and since Labour did not reform benefits they were long over due. And the same for pensions. The UK economy is still growing but at an anaemic rate considering the severity of the recession. I do expect it to slow down though changes in government policy will change outcomes. Also Ireland did have a trade surplus before the crisis which we do not have.