Martin Mansergh (Tipperary South, Fianna Fail)

The interesting point in this regard is that the debate has changed. When that comment was first made, Boston represented America, neoliberalism, light regulation and so on, while Berlin represented European social democracy. There is a good case to be made that today, we perhaps are closer to Frankfurt than to Berlin or Boston. As Frankfurt has a sort of rigour about it that would not necessarily always be welcome to European social democracy, there is a little irony in that debate.

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