Mr. Bertie Ahern:

Well, you've asked me a number of questions in that. In my entire political life, I think I've ... from the time I was Lord Mayor of this city of Dublin and through being Minister for lots of things, but particularly Labour and Finance, I spent my time giving a positive message about this country. I travelled on trade missions. I spoke internationally. I did thousands of meetings talking up the benefits of our country, giving factual positions but also trying to explain all that we could do, particularly in the years ... in the bad years when ... in the late '80s and in the early ... when I was Minister for Finance when matters were very, very tight. So I was always giving a positive message, trying to give ... if the Minister ... I used to be chairman of the committee for employment back in the late '80s and early '90s and, as Finance Minister, if I was going out giving a negative message or a downbeat message, then what hope was there for the rest of us? I would always try to be positive. I would always try to keep a confident message and talk about the glass being half full. And, as you know, Deputy, in this country, an awful lot of people, even when the glass is full, want it to be half empty. So I make no apologies for always trying to be positive and sometimes when it was difficult. And if you ... you see in the papers that you had sent to me, many of the areas where the Department of Finance were advising their own Minister to keep it positive, because there were domestic issues.