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.

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.

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.

For me, it is all about people having jobs, and that is why I make no apology for having focused relentlessly on employment and job creation.

Under no circumstances will I allow the Fianna Fail party back into government. They wrecked the economy twice.

We must ensure that more binding, durable, and enforceable fiscal rules go hand-in-hand with funding certainty for countries pursuing sound and sustainable economic policies. We need to keep pushing forward towards a comprehensive solution to the challenges of the eurozone.