In what must now be viewed economically as a foreign land yet to see the fruits of the boom, the average price of a second-hand home here 13 years ago was 67,000.

And as Joe Higgins reminded the Taoiseach in the Dail last week, he managed to buy a house in west Dublin around the same time for under 50,000.

But if Ahern had used the money to buy a house, he would have had to pay a crippling mortgage interest rate of almost 10% . . . over twice today's levels, even taking into account the recent rate rises.

The average house loan taken out in 1993 was a mere 44,400 . . . barely enough to buy an accompanying car parking space in today's property market.

Average bank interest rates were just short of 11%, making borrowing very expensive for everybody, and credit cards the preserve of the wealthy.

People didn't borrow as much then as they do today. Certainly, if any bank manager around the time had offered the three percent interest Ahern said he had agreed to pay his benefactor friends, he would have been sacked on the spot.

50,000 was also more than half a year's pay for Ahern as the then minister for finance was on a little over 81,000 a year. But the "relatively small" whip-round represented three years' pay for a clerical officer working in Ahern's department, who would have been on 17,806 a year.

A senior bank official was on just over half a ministerial whip-round at 28,895, while the average industrial wage was just over 17,000 a year, or one-third of a ministerial whip-round.

Though Ahern was being driven around the country at the time in a government car, he could have bought a new Cseries Mercedes Benz, which was just being launched in Ireland in 1993 at a recommended price of almost 32,000.

Even then, he would have had almost enough left to buy the latest 'off-roader', which was just starting to appear on Irish roads for the first time, though the dreaded 4WDs had yet to make their appearance. A Nissan Terrano offroader started at 25,400 in 1993.

Given his preference for the ordinary things in life, Ahern would probably have opted to walk across from his constituency office, St Luke's in Drumcondra, where he was living at the time, and buy a pint in Fagan's for 2.24.

The Taoiseach still takes a pint in Fagan's but everything else from the Ireland of the early 1990s has changed beyond recognition. There were almost 1.2 million people at work in 1993, while just last month employment passed the two-million mark for the first time in the history of the state.

But back then, unemployment was still a black cloud hanging over the entire country, with 180,000 on the live register . . . 16% of the workforce. Today, the figure is around four percent of a much larger workforce and unemployment is an unrecognisable word for most people under 30.

Remarkably from today's multi-racial perspective, 1993 Ireland had net emigration as thousands fled the country because of high unemployment. Thirteen years ago, 30,100 entered the country while 34,800 left. Last year, 70,000 officially entered the country . . . the vast majority of them immigrant workers availing of the boom . . . and 16,600 left.

Ironically, Ahern's government can take much of the credit for creating almost a million jobs in the interim and turning Ireland into a country of net immigration.

/60,000 The amount Ahern says he borrowed from his friends in 1993-94 /81,000 Ahern's salary as minister for "nance in 1993 /17,806 The average salary of a clerical of"cer in Ahern's department in 1993 /44,400 The average amount borrowed to buy a house in Ireland in 1993 /32,000 The price of a new C-series Mercedes Benz here in 1993 /2.24 The price of a pint of Bass in 1993