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TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has told an American audience at Harvard that Ireland has been through a “bleak midwinter” but is now focused on recovery and opportunity.
The Taoiseach’s speech at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in Massachusetts last night focused on re-asserting Ireland’s place in the world, noting that there is now less talk of Ireland’s difficulties and more about recovery.
“I won’ t pretend to you that it’s been easy. The road is long, but we’ve made a firm start,” said the Taoiseach.
He praised the wealth and value of Ireland and the Irish people, saying that it was “as wealth that can never be accumulated in banks, or measured by the markets or traded on the stock exchange”.
“Yes – in recent times we have hit the headlines for reasons we would not have wished. But if that which has been so explicit and so public about Ireland has been negative then I can assure you it is equally something temporary passing,” the Taoiseach told the audience.
He described the bailout by the troika as “a bleak midwinter… for our country, our pride, our people”.
The Taoiseach quoted President Kennedy on his 1963 visit to Ireland, who had described how Ireland’s “remarkable combination of hope, confidence and imagination that is needed more than ever today”.
“50 years on, I’m proud to report it still is,” said the Taoiseach.
The visit is the Taoiseach’s second visit to the east coast of America in the space of a week. Last week he was in New York for the Invest in Ireland forum along with former president Bill Clinton to encourage business leaders to consider investing in Ireland.
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“An economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will NEVER produce enough revenue to balance our budget, just as it will NEVER produce enough jobs or enough profits”
John F. Kennedy
“Our best days are still ahead”
“as wealth that can never be accumulated in banks, or measured by the markets or traded on the stock exchange”
Looks like Enda checked the speech drawer and decided to re-hash bits from both his own and Obama’s speeches on College Green last year. Lazy.
I was wondering…it did sound a bit too deep for Enda to come with a statement like that. He probably knew that no one, or at least very few, at the conference yesterday would have heard Obama’s speech here last year!
Yes our brightest days are ahead… Once we get the Blueshirts out of power
To be replaced by camouflaged ones….no thanks!
Let’s wait till we pay all “our” dues “in full and on time” before we get ahead of ourselves Enda.
Can’t wait to see the back of this charlatan.
How can there be a recovery with the brightest and best gone? With government policy and quangos closing business every day and the only jobs for the boys NAMA robbing and vulturing. I hope Enda stays there in states and nevr comes back!!
I hope that wouldn’t mean we’d have to include Enda in our “brightest and best gone”! :-(
He must actually believe his own lies, to be able to stand there spouting that kind of waffle! I wonder what he is using as the unique selling point to attract potential investors to Ireland…
“There is no risk investing in Ireland! You succeed, you make profit, you fail, myself and Mr Noonan have your backs”
You have to admit that’s a damn attractive sales pitch you got there!
It is in fairness Mark…Kenny is an idealist after all!!!
Just like New York was ahead for the Titanic…
Bleak midwinter he says !!!
We are just moving into autumn of this cycle.
Let’s wait till we pay “our” dues “in full and on time” before we get ahead of ourselves Enda.
Looking forward to seeing the back of this charlatan.
He forgot to mention there is another 10 billion to come in cuts out of the economy,this man loves telling porkies just like all the rest of his cronies
Of course, that’s an unavoidable mathematical problem. Anyone who looks at Ireland will see that. Nonetheless it’s not a porkie to say that we WILL get through this and that people should look long term and see that our best and brightest days ARE still ahead of us.
Them brighter days can’t come quick enough for those families who decide to got to bed at 7pm just to cut down on ESB bills.
Can anyone tell me how and why it can be justified that Enda can swan back and forth to the States and bring executive pals too? At the very least could they not have waited till March anc tie it all up with Paddy’s Day, I mean it’s not as if they won’t go again then!
He’s doing his job there. Get a good story in the news cycle, pound the business drum, reach out to Irish Americans.
BTW, I have it on good authority that Inda just let one off seconds before that photo was taken. Apparently he was heard mumbling under his breath ‘SBD: silent but deadly’
Whatever you think about Enda, I’m just glad it was him standing there and not Cowen… and I think that every time I see him give an address beside a world leader or on the international stage.
Cowen was actually a nice chap, and very intelligent despite his disastrous decisions (I know that sounds strange, but there you go), but he was never leadership material. You can’t mumble and inspire.
I was never a fan of Enda (mainly because I met him once during the election campaign and remember thinking ‘ah jaysus, not this guy…’), but after his speech on College Green with Obama I have changed my mind.
The taoiseach seems to be out of touch with reality.If he thinks that business is going to flood into Ireland after his visit he would want to think again. The USA. is in recession too.Every time there are new jobs announced there is a big announcement. What about all the jobs that have been lost owing to the Policies of previous and the present Government. This government made a hames of the Pension early retirement issue. There is no plan B if things go wrong.
I just want the readies he nicked out of my pension fund returned.silly auld mayo buff.
Or Mr Gilmore is under the table………..
Way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way ahead
In all fairness what is he supposed to say when he’s away trying to secure investment….”Ireland is f**ked”, “invest in Ireland at your own risk”,”all our best and brightest are leaving in their thousands”,”we still have savage cuts ahead”, what message would that send to the world if our own leader was telling things how they really are and it certainly wouldn’t instill confidence in those who potentially would invest here, at least the guy is getting out there and trying to get Ireland in the positive news stories for a change
Hear hear…. He’s out there doing his best. Whether that’s good enough, only time will tell…
The Yanks would ‘ve had to have had their heads buried in the sand, not to realise that this country is f***ed!! And anyway if the Yanks are going to invest abroad, it’s going to be in one of the BRIC countries!!
Enda makes a speech to very influential people talking up our country and as expected, TheJournal comments section explodes into a rage of negativity.
Ever think that people might be sick of words and want action, all well and good talking up the country and promising this that and the other when in reality we still have the same fail policies.
Did he explain to these influential people the state of our health service, the two tier system, the cuts to it, the nursing embargo, the early retirements, the cuts to education, the continuing zombie bank support, the large wage rises to his buddies,the blinding austerity he has in mind for the rest of us while he and his merry band of political buddies fail to understand that the country is bankrupt yet they still carry on like kings with un-vouched expenses and over inflated salaries?
How do you or anyone to respect what this man has to say when he’s living the high life and condemns the most needy to deepening poverty?
That you Inda? He really there drumming up interest in the mass privatization of all we have left. Maybe he should find someone Goldman Sachs to agree the write off the billions they lumbered us with their derivative gambling and debt default swaps and all the other illegal immoral business they were and are up to.
Aaah Ed. I can’t wait for him to give us a bar of “It’s my own Irish home, far across the foam….”
David the comments were a shock to us all. Can’t go on… too shocked.
Really upset you didn’t like my song Gary. You being such a patriot an’ all..
That maybe due to the fact David that Enda Kenny entered the Dail on his first day and gave what any thought was a hugely inspiring and uplifting speech. We brought him and the rest of this outfit in on the basis of change and transparency and all we got was another tired, worn out, been done to death, spin based, detached version of FF. Kenny took peoples very genuine hopes and aspirations and betrayed them..he and Gilmore have been cowtailing to Europe since the day they got in and have not represented us in anyway meaningful way. People feel hugely let down and angry so please don’t be in the slighhtest bit suprised if our rage is vented on these pages..
Amazing how the man can be so far away yet stay so out of touch with reality.
Looking good to me, things improving slowly and new jobs being announced slowly. Perhaps your a little out of touch with reality?
Hey Kevin. Let me see ? 450,000 unemployed, 90,000 children living in constant poverty, 1 in 5 house holds struggling to pay household bills, ……. nope I think I’m still in touch with reality.
Reality is that whatever problems Ireland have, they won’t be fixed in the space of a year.
Do you think the unemployment situation would be improved if he stayed in Dublin year round and told the rest of the world to go away and leave us alone?
I agree, it will certainly take more then a year to fix the problems we have, and I certainly don’t advocate “telling people to go away. What would be nice though if we had a representative that was more in touch with reality and worked towards the national interest. US investors, indeed most investors are not stupid they will smile at Endas bleak midwinter comments but they, like most, can see that things are not slowly getting better. These people are looking for a place to make money, even the word slowly will put them off. Nobody wants to put their money into an ever increasingly unstable and unhappy jurisdiction that they might not be able to pull out of. If we had a political leadership with any back bone what he would tell them is that Ireland is going to stand out from the world and that we are going to invest in our people and pay back our bondholders equally, (albeit a little more slowly then at first thought). Rather then cut and tax and spend every borrowed penny we have on bond repayments we are going to invest in our future and would like to invite them to participate. If an investor thought that Ireland was rebuilding itself, its social fabric, cherishing its most valuable asset “the people” then they would rush to invest in a country that would more then reimburse their investment. I do not nor have I ever promoted feeling sorry for ourselves, however while sticking your head in the sand might work in Ireland it will not work in the US and certainly not with the people Enda is trying to fool.
Do you expect all this to change overnight? Clearly he said we had a “firm start”. Start being the key word.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/ireland-goes-looking-for-outside-help-02162012_page_2.html
“In the last month, Bruton has met with representatives of the Israeli government to learn how they’ve coordinated investment with their own diaspora.”
This is an incredibly good idea…
The “Law of Return” passed on 5 July 1950, gives Jews the right of return and settlement in Israel and gain citizenship. In 1970, the right of entry and settlement was extended to people of Jewish ancestry, and their spouses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Return
Ireland’s Diaspora is very large and many rich, high profile, Irish-Americans would love to have Irish Citizenship… they would invest in Ireland, create jobs, and improve our standard of living.
Personally, I know several Irish Americans who love to buy property here, retire here, and live between Ireland and America. Giving Irish American’s citizenship rights would give them a since of national responsibility and patriotism… and we’d get their dosh.
That’s some brilliant thinking right there.
Ireland treats its’ forced emigrants very shabbily – and trots out this plan every time the state needs money. It’s not just the state either, you hear people talking about plastic paddies and making fun of Irish Americans. Is it guilt?
Looks like he is smiling to our lord
“The road is long ” Inda quoting the Kinks now!!
siobhan it was the hollies
I now believe that a sizeable proportion of contributors to these pages receive the average industrial wage every week from an odious political movement and are instructed to deliver daily tirades calculated to move public opinion substantially to the left.
Let’s see the way they play with announcements of jobs from the US or a reduction in the interest rates on Anglo promissory notes.
The one casualty of these so called freedoms of expression in this modern digital world is TRUTH.
Yes it’s a leftist conspiracy aimed at readers of the journal, that is sure to swing national opinion.
It is probably more likely that you are horribly out numbered on journal.ie by lefties to begin with.
Get a grip on reality.
Enda – in future tell the truth, we deserve it.
Good news day. Expect the “Hardcore 5″ (Journal’s notorious trolls) to be posting all night on this one.
Pic is pretty funny
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