Gloomy forecast for Irish economy

The Republic of Ireland's leading forecast agency has warned that the country will experience its first recession since 1983 this year.

The Economic and Social Research Institute also says it expects emigration to return.

It has been a gloomy 24 hours for the Republic's economy. First there was the news that the insurance group, Hibernian, is to move 580 jobs over the next three years to India.

And then on Tuesday morning over breakfast, radio listeners and newspaper readers were fed more of a diet of bad news with the latest ESRI forecasts.

The institute expects the Irish economy to contract by 0.4% this year after growing by 4.5% in 2007.