Top 91 Quotes & Sayings by Enda Kenny
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Irish politician Enda Kenny.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
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.
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.
Our priority will be to look after the interests of our own country and its citizens.
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.
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.
The U.K. and Ireland are like-minded on E.U. matters, and the process of working together in Brussels has built an immense store of knowledge, personal relationships, and trust between our governments.
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 have never been on the trail of developers or contractors.
I would never accuse the Irish people of being in any way stupid.
I intend to serve a full term as Taoiseach.
I am a big believer in Springsteen, I like his social comment; I like the commitment he puts into his work.
The lion's share of the damage to the Irish economy was the fault of domestic, economic, and financial mismanagement.
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.
My job starts at a quarter to seven in the morning, and you go right through until whatever time is necessary to finish up.
I just think that the older you get, the more you appreciate the responsibility of politics.
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.
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.
Conservation is important... water comes at a cost.
I didn't go on a campaign of developers asking, 'Please give me money.'
The re-establishment of a hard border on the island of Ireland would be a step backwards and present an opportunity for others, with malign agendas, to exploit for destructive purposes.
I am perfectly clear in my mind and in my conscience in respect of freedom of religious principles and beliefs.
The Constitution says that the right to life of the unborn is protected and given equal rights as the life of the mother.
Emigration is always a difficulty.
People understand that you have to do difficult things to sort out our own public finances.
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.
We have a very long legal system with the European Union, and we're English speaking.
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.
My wife, Fionnuala, and I have been married for more than 20 years.
Irish people are pragmatic. They understand that nobody is going to fix our problems but ourselves.
I now know what to do; I know how decisions can be made. I know how you can drive ministers and their departments to actually make decisions and bring results.
The best recording is the one you bring with you in your mind.
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.
People put dates on any kind of comment that you make.
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.
You have a responsibility as a locally elected deputy, but you also have a responsibility as the head of government.
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.
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.
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.
I don't like to see people on trolleys in hospitals; I don't like to see old people sitting in chairs for hours.
Under no circumstances will I allow the Fianna Fail party back into government. They wrecked the economy twice.
You need to talk to people, and you need to hear what it is they have to say.
I get on very well with Denis Naughten, absolutely.
In Ireland here, the Revenue Commission have always been completely independent of the state since 1923, and they are quite adamant and quite clear that there was no preferential treatment and no special deals, no sweetheart deals, and that Apple paid the taxes that were due on their profits generated here in this country.
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.
We link our future to the euro, to the euro zone, and to the European Union while being the nearest neighbor of the United Kingdom with, obviously, a common travel area and a very close working relationship with the U.K.
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.
Ireland cannot become the collector general for the world. We can only tax on profits generated in the country here.
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.
I have no interest in the trappings of power.
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.
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 think 'austerity' is a much abused word. I prefer to call it 'fiscal discipline' or financial, 'financial competency.'
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.
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.
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.
Building on our strong track record of supporting developing countries, including in areas like climate justice, human rights, gender and education, Ireland recognises that vulnerable communities need very considerable assistance in adapting to climate change.
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.
What I do like is action, achievements, and results. Getting things done.
One of the key drivers of Ireland's future is our balance of trade surplus.
My experience would say to me, never presume to have an answer to what the people are actually going to do.
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