Ballylanders student Bailey O’Rourke Lane – a grandson of the late Joan and Billy O’Rourke, Mitchelstown – secured a resounding success in the finals of the national ‘Young Economist of the Year’ awards which were held in Croke Park on Wednesday, May 2.
This year’s competition attracted almost 500 entries from 60 participating schools. Bailey received a gold medal at the awards for his project entitled ‘Who benefits from Trump’s Tax Plan’, coming first place in his category. Bailey attends John the Baptist Community School in Hospital, Co Limerick.
He showed a natural interest and enthusiasm for economics and was encouraged to enter the national competition/economics showcase by his teacher Ms Michelle Woulfe, and his efforts were rewarded in the final in Croke Park.
He was also awarded the ‘Best in Year’ subject award for economics and the student of the year award at the school awards in John the Baptist Community School recently.
He hopes to go on and study something in the field of Law and Business at third level.
The week after the national competition, winners from all categories were invited to the Irish Economic Annual Conference, held this year in the Central Bank in Dublin on the 10th and 11th May.
There they met with the Governor of the Central Bank, Professor Philip Lane as well as several of the leading national and international economists and academics in the field of economics.
Bailey would like to acknowledge the support and assistance of his economics teacher, Ms Woulfe, school principal Ms Rafferty, as well as other teachers in preparing him for the competition.
He would alsolike to thank local businesses ‘Printman’ (Mitchelstown) and ‘Adva Sign’ (Fermoy) in terms of producing the print and display materials for the competition.
