"You see, in government, people give you a mandate, and you've got to fulfil that. Ours is very clear. Fix our public finances and get our country working."
"Irish people are pragmatic. They understand that nobody is going to fix our problems but ourselves."
"My wife, Fionnuala, and I have been married for more than 20 years."
"I'm a big fan of Springsteen. Obviously, his social commentary is very powerful for me. I like his album 'The Rising.' It's not a new one, but it sticks in my mind because of what it says to me."
"The best recording is the one you bring with you in your mind."
"Foreign investors like decisiveness; they like clarity. There isn't any confusion about Ireland's corporate tax rate: it is 12.5%. End of story."
"One of the key drivers of Ireland's future is our balance of trade surplus."
"For years, Ireland used to have a philosophy of 'Get them in here to invest and develop in Ireland, and this will sort out our problems.' It is good in the sense of building a trade surplus, but we also want to develop what it is that we offer ourselves and that Irish companies export abroad."
"My job is to rectify the public finances and hand the country back to the people so they can really have a future, and that is what I will do."
"Emigration is always a difficulty."
"You have a responsibility as a locally elected deputy, but you also have a responsibility as the head of government."
"You're not going to be able to deliver jobs locally unless you sort out the nation's problems, and that's why the big and difficult decisions about Ireland's economy have been so crucial and so difficult for people to have to accept and have to deal with, but the reality is the people gave this government an unprecedented mandate."
"Our revenue commissions are very happy and very clear that they showed no sweetheart deals and no preference for any company and never do and never have and never will."
"We have a very long legal system with the European Union, and we're English speaking."
"Ireland cannot become the collector general for the world. We can only tax on profits generated in the country here."
"We have so much discrimination in this world - colour, race, creed, all of these things - and there is an issue here that the right of marriage in the civil law is not extended to same-sex couples."
"The world has changed utterly. There was a time when you couldn't marry a Protestant. There was a time when you got married that the women had to give up their job in the public service, and when they got married, they were owned by their husbands. That's all changed."
"If somebody says, 'I am a gay person, and I want to get married,' is their own family going to deny them that? Are our own fellow citizens going to deny them that?"
"I am perfectly clear in my mind and in my conscience in respect of freedom of religious principles and beliefs."
"I've often said it: that it is seen to be a place of energy, of excitement, of enthusiasm. That there's something about Ireland."
"I think - whether it's music, literature, sport, art, whatever you want - there's nobody who can stop us if we only apply ourselves with the singular objective of being the best in the world."
"Respectability in this country was a bad word because people did things who were in respected professions that let down the entire nation, and we're washing away their sins yet."
"Rather than just saying, like, 'Your economy is the be all and end all,' I go back to my three roots that I've often said about this being best country for business, the best to raise a family in, and the best to grow old in with a sense of dignity and respect."
"I am a big believer in Springsteen, I like his social comment; I like the commitment he puts into his work."
"I enjoy his concerts and OK, maybe - I can't sing, I can't dance, I can't play the guitar, but I am going to go a long way if I keep following Springsteen."
