CANBERRA - There has been a sharp contrast between Ireland's debt crisis and the performance of the Australian economy, Treasurer Wayne Swan said on Tuesday.

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The Irish government has succumbed to its debt and banking crisis, negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank to produce a bailout deal expected to approach $139 billion.

According to Swan, those events showed the world was still dealing with the impact of the global financial crisis.

"These events absolutely underscore how patchy is the global economic recovery," he told Parliament in Canberra on Tuesday. "They particularly underscore how different the position is in this country compared with so many other developed countries around the world."

Swan said the Australia is in a stronger position than just about any other developed economy in the world.

He attributed Australia's position to the government's decisive action, saying that if the opposition had had its way in opposing the government's stimulus measures, the nation's economy would have gone into recession.