Paul Sweeney, Economic Advisor to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, was a business and economic advisor for several years and worked for SIPTU. He is Chair of  TASC's Economists Network. He has been a board member of ESB and an ESOT director. His previou books include The Celtic Tiger: Ireland's Continuing Economic Miracle.

Ireland's Economic Success: Reasons and Lessons is his second collaboration with New Island. In 2003 he penned Selling Out, the story of privatisation in Ireland as part of the TASC series of books.