Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

Last Friday I had the privilege of attending the Cork Person of the Year ceremony. A monthly award is given and, at the end of the year, one of the 12 is picked. For instance, Maureen O'Hara was selected as Cork Person of the Month. However, Liam Casey won the annual award. He is from Cork but he works in China and employs more than 1,200 people. He made two points at the presentation. The first is that every time a report is published in a newspaper in Ireland, it is available around the world within five minutes and he emphasised the importance of being positive. The second issue he raised was that the perception foreigners have of Ireland is totally different from the perception we in Ireland have of ourselves. The perception abroad is more positive than the way we are portraying it in Ireland. It should be borne in mind when we debate issues and we want something in the public domain that the entire world is looking in and many positive developments are taking place in Ireland.

Cork city has been designated a healthy city by the World Health Organisation. The designation revolves around all the organisations in the area working together to educate people about health care and improving their lifestyle. For instance, in three out of four deaths, circulation problems were-----