Irish workers "largely wasted" their income during the economic boom, the Davy study said.
The study, according to the Irish Times, said that one of the great misconceptions about Ireland is that it is a wealthy country.
"Davy's report states that while Ireland climbed the income per capita table year-after-year from 1994 onwards, it never became wealthy because much of the money earned between the years 2000 and 2008 was 'largely wasted.'"
The study pointed out that Ireland was still ranked eighth in the euro zone in terms of wealth, but added that "years of high income must be invested wisely for a country to become wealthy." This, apparently, was not the case.
The Davy report noted that estimates of the Republic's capital stock such as hospitals, telecommunications, schools and transport infrastructure shows that Ireland lags behind other small euro zone countries such as Finland or Belgium. The infrastructure should in fact be far better than it is, the reported stated.
It added that too much of what is termed capital stock was made up of housing, which accounted for almost two-thirds of the increase.
Housing, according to the report, is "an unproductive asset."
Nonetheless, the report further notes that Ireland still has the second-highest number of graduates in the 25-34 age category in the European Union and that the quality of employees has not diminished.
