An economic expert says Ireland suffered unnecessarily by paying back debt during our economic crash.

A conference on austerity in Limerick today will hear that we should have waited to repay our debt until our economy was in growth.

And there is a warning that by going the other way - introducing cuts during the hardest times - we could have caused the economy to shrink, and debt to bloom.

Economists and political commentators will debate the impact of austerity policies on society at the University of Limerick.

On a week when the voters Ireland elected hundreds of councillors opposed to austerity, the conference is timely.

Mark Blyth is Professor of international political economy at Brown University and a speaker at the conference.

He told Newstalk Breakfast that the problem is one of politics, not economics.