IRISH people are more optimistic about 1996 than anyone else in the European Union.
The latest Eurobarometer poll for the European Commission shows that 46 per cent of Irish respondents think life, will improve in 1996. Another 45 per cent are convinced things will not deteriorate.
This optimism is not shared, across Europe. Overall, only three of the people questioned throughout the EU thought life would improve. One in two expected no change. The Germans and Austrians were particularly downbeat - only 22 per cent of them expected life to improve this year.
Despite the high level of optimism about life in general, Irish people were less sanguine on specific questions about money and jobs. Only 28 per cent of Irish respondents expected their household's financial prospects to improve. Even fewer, 22 per cent, thought their job situation would be enhanced.
Given that a much higher percentage of Irish people are expressing general optimism for the future, perhaps it is noneconomic factors - such as peace prospects in the North - that are contributing to this feeling of wellbeing. Ia other countries, optimism tends to be linked more closely to economic confidence.
By contrast, 30 per cent of Danes expect their households to be better off. In the UK, the figure is 29 per cent. But at the other end of the scale, 36 per cent of French respondents expect to be worse off - four times the percentage of Irish people who expect their financial position to deteriorate.
