Enda Kenny
My genuine belief is that if we can get through the eurozone crisis from a political point of view, we've got a lot of engines that can drive our economy, that will restore confidence and get us moving on.Collection: Moving
Public confidence in, and support for, the euro - and, indeed, the European Union - will ultimately be determined by how well we deliver on growth and jobs rather than on institutional wrangling and complex legal or technical negotiations.Collection: Legal
We have a very long legal system with the European Union, and we're English speaking.Collection: Legal
Populist promises to reverse every tough decision are nothing but empty rhetoric, irresponsible leadership, and bad politics. They are not the solution to Ireland's problems.
I have never had an interest in opinion polls. They are merely an indicator, that's all.
I would never accuse the Irish people of being in any way stupid.
By 2007, an uncompetitive, bloated, over-borrowed and distorted Irish economy had been left at the mercy of subsequent international events without the safeguards, institutions, and mindset needed to survive and prosper as a small open economy inside the euro area.
No politician in a European sense is happy with 26 million people unemployed. Nobody can be happy with 6 to 9 million young people unemployed. You have to give them hope and confidence and a sense of inspiration that the European process is actually about people, not about bureaucracy.
Emigration is always a difficulty.
By far, the greatest contribution Ireland can make is to lead by example, by actively pursuing its own transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy.
For me, it is all about people having jobs, and that is why I make no apology for having focused relentlessly on employment and job creation.
COP 21 provides a unique opportunity for the political leaders of this generation to provide lasting foundations for the preservation and sustainability of generations of the future.
To me, the real opinion polls are the tangible facts: the growing creation of jobs, the number of planning permissions, the number of commercial vans being sold - the signs that the Irish people are regaining confidence.
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.
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.
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.
Under no circumstances will I allow the Fianna Fail party back into government. They wrecked the economy twice.
I think 'austerity' is a much abused word. I prefer to call it 'fiscal discipline' or financial, 'financial competency.'
It is the young people in whom I place my confidence because of their competence, because of their enthusiasm, because of their capacity to meet the frontiers that are changing every week.
We've got enormous potential, phenomenal potential on our doorstep, which requires politics that makes that work, and that's what we try to show here in Ireland: that while there's a lot of pain, the reward at the end of this is career opportunities, prosperity, and brighter days for everybody.
People put dates on any kind of comment that you make.
If you were to do it again, you'd probably do some things differently. But the decision is right to have a single entity manage the water and the waste water for a country.
Conservation is important... water comes at a cost.
I intend to serve a full term as Taoiseach.
I just think that the older you get, the more you appreciate the responsibility of politics.
My experience would say to me, never presume to have an answer to what the people are actually going to do.
I don't like to see people on trolleys in hospitals; I don't like to see old people sitting in chairs for hours.
I have no interest in the trappings of power.
There will be no hard border from Dundalk to Derry in the context of it being a European border, and by that I mean customs posts every mile along the road.
I don't take myself too seriously, but I take the job very seriously, and I expect people to do the job that they're given because this is about all our people, young and old, and it's an enormous responsibility.