Mr Trapattoni has provided us with a team and a system I think that means we don't leak many goals, we're good defensively and we're relying on some of the individual brilliance of our midfield and our forwards to produce on the day

Taoiseach Brian Cowen talks about last night's World Cup qualifier on the Fianna Fáil website ahead of the game

This is the biggest corporate welfare cheque ever written... it's almost as if it's not real money

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore on the day the Nama legislation finally passed through the Oireachtas

...all the gravy for the banks and nothing for the taxpayer

Fine Gael's Kieran O'Donnell on Nama

People who find themselves in negative equity or who have lost a second or sole income are faced with a senior minister implying that it is the government's intention to cut child benefit

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny criticises government plans to cut child benefit

Inhuman monsters... And like any such disease, when it is located it must be aggressively treated

Judge Hunt as he jailed three men for terrorising a family in a kidnapping during the robbery of a security cash delivery van in 2005

It is shocking to think that something like this could happen here. Everyone is stunned

Fr Richie Higgins, parish priest of Ardrahan, reacting to the news that retired farmer Finbar Fahy was murdered at his home

We have to commemorate everyone equally. Why wasn't this done before? People took personal and political positions but we are recognising these people now and it's high time it was done

Glasnevin Trust chief executive George McCullough on the honouring of four Irish soldiers, three of whom had fought in World War I, at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin

It's every parent's living nightmare. The grief is unimaginable to anybody but a parent... like many little boys he loved the hoists and the cranes

Louth priest Fr Paul Clayton-Lea following the tragic death of three-year-old Desmond Dyas, who is understood to have lost his life after being hit by falling logs at Drogheda Port

Because I am a bit old and I found hiking a bit difficult at times, I think that they'd be glad to kidnap a younger man next time

A delighted Fr Michael Sinnott jokes about his kidnappers in the Philippines following his release from 32 days in captivity