Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

Nothing, it was great. When President-elect Obama finishes his celebrations, will the Taoiseach take an opportunity to place a telephone call to him?

The questions relate to the future and the Taoiseach's visit to New York in July. I was a little puzzled as to the purpose of that visit, which was, I understand, his first visit abroad as Taoiseach. Despite this, he did not travel to the capital city of the United States and I did not note any great political content in the visit. I was, however, struck by some of the Taoiseach's comments while in New York, particularly as they were made as recently as mid-July. For example, he stated in an interview that the Irish banking system was "very well capitalised".

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