During the boom, bank wealth reports generally put the Irish second to Japan as the wealthiest on earth. The data was one thing but in Japan where a third of employees were "temps," earning less than the Irish minimum wage, who could be dismissed with a day's notice and in Ireland where the average annual industrial wage was €32,000, beyond the Insiders in both one-party ruled democracies, the reality simply was out of sync with the message. Irish National Bank has today published a more sober wealth report for changed times, which says, that  the accumulated wealth of the average Irish household has declined by €153,000 over the last two years, equivalent to a fall of over 20%. Average household debt has continued to rise and reached €133,000 in 2008 - up from €128,000 at the end of 2007.