How we speak, like

The Irish Times ran an article on Saturday on how we Irish speak. It is written by Hugh Linehan.

He quotes Paul Howard, the creator of Ross O'Carroll-Kelly:

I think what the Celtic Tiger did was it took huge numbers of people like me and it processed them into people who speak with this total abdication of an accent. Which is nothing, it's a nowhere accent. I suppose my accent is nowhere at the moment, which reflects my own circumstances.

Surely it was not just the Celtic Tiger that leaves us in such circumstances?