Enda Kenny, Fine Gael Leader

Lately, there doesn't seem to be too much reason to talk about the famous luck of the Irish. We're in a recession, a thousand jobs are being lost each day, services are being cut and it seems that ordinary hard-working people are shouldering the burden. But this week, more than any other, we should raise our heads, look to the future and say "we're going to get through this and we're going to get our country back on track". Why? Because in the week of St Patrick's Day we have an opportunity to remind ourselves of all the great things that make us Irish. I saw it when I was minister for trade and tourism in the late 1990s. We are a people that have imagination, spirit, a capacity for hard work and a drive to succeed that has seen us triumph on a global scale in the worlds of art, music, sport and business.

In this week of all others, we have to remember that the Ireland of the future is not the one of reckless bankers, greedy developers and their cheerleading political friends. It is the Ireland that I see every day as I travel the country. Family and community are at its core and each individual strives to achieve their potential, whatever that might be. On this week of all weeks, let us never forget the potential that rests within us all that can achieve anything we set our minds to. We've done it before. We've travelled a long way. Today we're mired in recession and gloom but we will get through it. And we will thrive and bloom once more as a country and as a people. Our innate Irish spirit, passed on from generation to generation, has taught us that lesson above all others.

Ní neart go chur le chéile.