Ok, fine, this is a rare instance where I will retract my claim.
You win the argument.
I do wonder if there might be something more in the picture besides just per capita GDP statistics, however.
"The Irish Economic Model Is Built on Rotten Foundations - Now Its People Want an Alternative
October 2020
Held up as a eurozone poster boy after the 2008 crash, the Irish economy still isn’t delivering for the majority of its people, especially the young. A second global recession in just over a decade will sharpen popular discontent and the desire for a new model.
The Irish Central Statistics Office published GDP figures for 2015. They showed a leap in Irish production of 26.3 percent. This prompted widespread derision and was quickly dubbed “leprechaun economics” by the noted American economist Paul Krugman.
There was, of course, no way that this figure accurately reflected economic reality. The 2015 results merely underlined the extent to which Irish statistics were deeply distorted by the globalization of Ireland’s economy and, more particularly, by transnational corporate tax-minimization strategies. The relatively low corporate tax rate and a permissive attitude to foreign business make Ireland, despite vehement official denials, a prominent tax haven. It is an offshore island, after all.
These activities can make Ireland’s economy appear larger than it really is in any number of ways. Transfer pricing, where companies charge their Irish subsidiary artificially low prices for inputs and pay excessively high prices for the Irish outputs, makes the Irish operation look bigger while transferring profits to the low-tax location."
https://jacobinmag.com/2020/10/ireland- ... -sinn-fein