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!

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.

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!!!

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?

Or Mr Gilmore is under the table………..

I hope that wouldn’t mean we’d have to include Enda in our “brightest and best gone”! :-(

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.

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!!

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..

He’s doing his job there. Get a good story in the news cycle, pound the business drum, reach out to Irish Americans.

To be replaced by camouflaged ones….no thanks!

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.