The gutter is Bertie Ahern's natural habitat.

I think there should be a law that would allow the Oireachtas to take pensions away from people. That would go for corrupt politicians; it would go for public servants who failed miserably or were incompetent.

Geographically, we are at the periphery of Europe, but I don't see Ireland in that way. The way I see us is as an island at the center of the world.

In any walk of life, it's very easy to judge people's actions in retrospect.

The traditional divide between left and right, capital and labor, small state and big state, high taxes and low taxes doesn't define politics in the way it did in the past.

Politicians should not get involved in the detail of clinical criteria and shouldn't be arguing with professors and consultants over whether there is one standard deviation or two standard deviations.