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Investment in Quality●The need to maintain core long-term strategies and investments;and● The need to modify these in the light of changing circumstances.These lessons are relevant to the current situation, as is illustrated inChapter 3 below.1.4.3 Understanding Ireland’s Experience of Economic Boomin the 1990sCombining the factors listed in Section 1.3 above, with theanalytical approach summarised in Section 1.4.1 we can alsounderstand Ireland’s remarkable economic boom in the 1990s.It is, of course, a simplification to put the factors that caused growthin a given order, since in reality they operated simultaneously.Nevertheless, the Council sees the story of Ireland’s boom in the1990s as follows:●●●●The adoption of a consistent policy framework through partnership—especiallyfiscal correction—which increased confidence;Social partnership consolidated a trend towards wagemoderation and significantly increased competitiveness;Organisational and technological developments prompted theAmerican firms in IT and software that had led the revival of theUS economy to seek outward investment;The Single European Market programme, initiated in the mid-1980s, played a major role because it:Caused a large increase in both Japanese and Americaninvestment in Europe;Increased the mobility of financial and other service firms;Prompted Irish firms, in industry and services, to adoptnew business strategies and organisational arrangements;Prompted new approaches to the regulation of services andutilities;48