Terry Baker

Terry Baker RIP

Terry Baker at an ESRI event in September 2009

Terry Baker, who died on 3 January 2010 after a short illness, edited the Quarterly Economic Commentary from 1968 to 1973 and again from 1983 until 1999 when he retired from the ESRI. 

Terry was one of the "Three Wise Men" appointed by the government in 1981 as the “Committee on Costs and Competitiveness”.  He and his colleagues Brendan Walsh and Dermot McAleese were the most respected independent experts on the Irish economy at that time.

Speaking at his memorial service on 8 January, John FitzGerald recalled that, for public and policy makers alike, Terry was the face of the ESRI for much of the dismal 1980s and the resurgent 1990s. In this role he set a standard in terms of the balance of his comments, the wisdom of his advice and the prescience of his conclusions that the Institute continues to try and uphold.

On his retirement, Terry delivered a seminar at the Institute in which he presented an overview of the Irish economy from the 1960s up until his retirement in 1999. This paper, entitled "The Irish Economy: Then, Now And Next", was published in the Quarterly Economic Commentary, December 1999.