Peter Clinch

Who is Peter Clinch?

Peter Clinch is an economist and holds the chair of Jean Monnet Professor of European Economic Integration as well as a Chair in Public Policy at University College Dublin. He is also UCD Vice-President for Innovation. His academic specialisms are sustainable economic growth and environmental economics. In 2002, he co-authored After the Celtic Tiger with Brendan Walsh and Frank Convery pointing out fragilities in the Irish economy in advance Ireland’s economic crisis. He was a critic of Irish government decisions on planning policy and decentralisation during the Irish Celtic Tiger boom describing the latter as “totally inconsistent with the National Spatial Strategy" and was said to be unenthusiastic about Ireland’s social partnership model. He was subsequently employed as Special Adviser to Brian Cowen, Taoiseach of Ireland between June 2008 and January 2011 where he advised on medium-term economic policy, enterprise policy and environmental policy which included drafting the productivity growth plan “Building Ireland’s Smart Economy” published by the Government in December 2008.