Ireland has turned the corner on the economic crisis and is playing a key role in EU-wide recovery, European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso declared last night.

The image of the European Commission as pushing austerity and creating difficulties for Ireland is wrong, the Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso will say today when he is awarded a honorary degree by University College Cork.

One of the world’s most powerful men will deliver a keynote address to the people of Ireland when he visits Cork next week.