McAleese: ‘We must harvest potential’

PRESIDENT Mary McAleese has suggested that creative minds idled during the Celtic boom times and people will have to harvest their potential once again to get past the recession.

She said difficult periods usually inspired innovation and she hoped the world would emerge from the economic crisis on the cusp of a “third industrial revolution”.

“The most interesting ideas have come in times of recession... it is almost as if our brains go into idle mode when times are easy. [But] when we are pressured we press the creative button,” she said.