DAIL EIREANN, DUBLIN Last month our Japanese partner attended the Davy Stockbrokers' presentations on midsized Irish companies at Dublin's Four Seasons hotel. Though undervaluation is now less obvious, Kamikawa is shocked by the growth rates of property and consumption related businesses. What national genius spawns such performance? I explain that our generation had to emigrate. Abroad we learnt that we were as capable as Wall Streeters or German workers. The experience broke us out of instinctive conservatism.

From 1970 to 1987 the Irish establishment failed its young. It didn't exploit opportunities won by independence. I knew we'd turned it around when reading Professor Joe Lee's book (Ireland 1912-1985) in 1989. When academics write Ireland off, it probably has a bright future! We returned with a different approach. The inevitable corrections will not scupper our enterprising spirit.

What about political leadership: how do we deliver low corporate taxes, open immigration and US investment?

Maybe Kamikawa will "nd the answer in Dail Eireann.

Colm of the security detail shows us Leinster House. We saw the banner of the Irish 69th New York Brigade . . . gifted by JFK. We saw deputies voting electronically and senators debating. Security was discreet: neither we nor our briefcases were searched. Mr Kamikawa was impressed by the quiet workings, accessibility . . . and proenterprise attitudes of the cabinet minister receiving us.

Media criticise politicians, though they give good public service. Tribunals have revealed little that would raise eyebrows in most countries. I am not surprised at Jim Glennon's intended return to private life. Being a TD gives no job security, little free time and modest income.

What does our Japanese partner think? High growth, employment and education versus lowish in"ation speak for themselves. It's impossible to keep pace with explosive growth. Infrastructure will come and property prices moderate. Despite challenges, Mr Kamikawa recommends sticking with our successful formula!

9 NOVEMBER: TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN I rarely join any club that would have me. But when the TCD Philosophical Society, reputed to be 320 years old, wanted speakers in favour of nuclear power, curiosity won over self-preservation.

Students were better informed and open than my undergraduate days . . . though the nuclear industry is now endorsed by Homer Simpson!

The setting was magni"cent. Mr Kamikawa is shocked by public disagreement, but TCD chaps are quite restrained. Apparently women are 67% of College population . . . but you wouldn't think so from the turn-out.

The debate's foundations are laid by a 20 minute technical presentation. Custom prevents interruptions while you develop and conclude arguments.

It's easier to hold attention through humour than by explaining that Chernobyl couldn't happen here because it relied on active safety systems. Advanced designs rely on universal principles like gravity and expanding gases.

The funniest wisecracks are true: no one believes me that Mr Kamikawa's company mines uranium in Kazakhstan. Farce becomes fact: it seems Borat has a monopoly on Kazak exports!

Trevor Sargeant asked us to consider unborn generations and depleting resources, so I mused on the eventual exhaustion of the sun when its fuel runs out (albeit in 3 billion years). Airtricity's Mark Ennis claimed that wind gets little state support! One of the things that make me a NTR shareholder is that the grid must take wind-generated power . . . at a higher rate . . . even if it means shutting down fossil-fuel generators. This sensible policy creates a large, hidden subsidy. You make Greens see purple by exploiting their contradictions: they complain that proven uranium reserves are currently inadequate to greatly expand consumption. But the same environmentalists obstruct new exploration and development, especially whining Australians . . . who have the world's biggest deposits.

Of course, the Corrib protests over a conventional gas pipeline show negligible prospect of building a nuclear reactor here. But we can import power from neighbours:

let Sella"eld's Norman Askew glow in the dark!

Amazingly, students threw nothing worse than middling rose. The 'Phil' declared it a nuclear victory by popular acclaim, though Mr Kamikawa sensibly recommended a formal count!

14 NOVEMBER: DUBLIN Guardian journalist, Laurence Donegan, appears. He is writing a book on the kidnapped stallion Shergar.

I explain how Kildare vet Stan Cosgrove insured his stallion share with the then Norwich Union (since subsumed into CGNU). Unlike many underwriters, CGNU refused to pay out on the horse's kidnapping. They argued that the animal was insured against death, not theft . . . though there was not then, nor is there now any additional premium for theft cover. When we tracked down former paramilitaries who con"rmed that Shergar had been destroyed within hours of abduction, the CGNU declined to accept their evidence. Finally when a Garda informant gave us a statement . . . formally corroborated by a senior Garda of"cer . . . they pleaded the Statue of Limitations! Insurers exist to pay legitimate claims.

Clients should avoid underwriters who don't.

15 NOVEMBER: DUBLIN The Deloittes/Enterprise Ireland CEO conference is worthwhile and Leopardstown Pavilion an inspired location. Commercial speakers were excellent, yet of"cials and economists don't understand business.

They lectured us about R+D, but Ireland is not good at basic research. We are street smart, "exible and good at plamas. Typically you get higher returns from commercial innovation or marketing than development.

Business contributors instinctively see the distinction.

The commentariat do not. We are separated by a common language!

16 NOVEMBER: ROME Shrieking teenagers and paparazzi greet us at Villa Medici, but they seem more interested in Tom Cruise next door. We combine meetings with an investment conference. To my horror, I won the prize for last year's "nancial forecasts! How will we get the wine back with EU airport security limits?

We dine at the Medicis' Roman base, bought by Napoleon when he sold Louisiana in 1803 . . . not a good trade, though many New Orleans residents reportedly wanted Chirac to take it back after Hurricane Katrina.

Dinner was with opera singers at the Doria Pamphilj Gallery, one of the oldest private collections. My remark that 'Velasquez's Pope Innocent X looks just like the original' earns me baleful stares. The culture . . . or maybe wine . . . inspires us to optimism.

Rome's ruins remind us that nothing lasts forever.

Doubtless their property developers were as con"dent as ours. Past achievements contrast with current listlessness. But the people are different. Empires decline . . . from climate change, over-population, plague, threats or failure of vision. Hubris accelerates the process.

If we don't adapt, the same will happen to us!