Ireland's fiscal consolidation was much, much smaller than Greece's. As you can see from the IMF data here http://www.academia.edu/4083342/The_Austerity_Trap_Economic_and_Social_Consequences_of_Fiscal_Consolidation_in_Europe it was 5.8% GDP (Ireland) vs 7.9% GDP (Greece). Greece immediately cut public-sector salaries and pensions by 40%, raised the retirement age (to 67 by 2022 as you can see in wikipedia), slashed the already meager welfare benefits (only 9% of the unemployed get an unemployment benefit fof a few months, and unemployment stands at 27%), and increased the value-added tax (which is now 23%).



As you can see from myriads of papers, GDP contraction in crisis countries is directly proportional to the amount of fiscal consolidation. While noone argues that some fiscal consolidation is inevitable after a boom, it's now crystal clear that is should be as little and as gradual as possible. The reforms that Greece enacted were clearly too much, and that's why it's in the position it's in now.



Either Mr Heise hasn't even taken a quick glance at the data, or this article serves an agenda. In any case, it diminishes his reputation as an economist.