The Tanaiste Mary Harney tonight rejected suggestions that the country's economy was heading for recession.
She told the Dáil there had been significant growth in Ireland's employment levels over the past three years.
Ms Harney, Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister, also warned against "hyping" present difficulties, but conceded there had been a "huge downturn" in the information technology sector and said the position had been exacerbated by the September 11th terrorist attacks on the US.
She was responding to Opposition queries about the state of the economy in the light of job loss announcements over the past week now running at more than 1,500.
Ms Harney declared there were now 117,000 extra people at work in Dublin, compared with the position three years ago.
She added "We need to put things into perspective and we need to ensure that we do not hype the difficulties that we are obviously experiencing.
"We are not in a recession - the country continues to grow. We are in a growth position. We have more people at work in Ireland today than we did a year ago."
PA