Incoming Taoiseach urges ‘leap of faith’

INCOMING Taoiseach Enda Kenny is asking for a “gigantic leap of faith” from the Irish people to trust their government and political leaders to write a new chapter in the country’s history.

In a rousing address to jubilant Fine Gael supporters in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel on Saturday night, Mr Kenny declared that: “Ireland is open for business”.

He said: “We have no time to lose, no hours to waste. We have a big job ahead of us.”

And he promised to “bring young people home” and create a brighter future for those who “pack their dollars beside their degrees and go to build other countries’ futures.”

He said: “We should at least give them the opportunity to do that here at home.”

He called on all politicians and all people to “truly work together to show real change that will bring our young people home to build that future again, here with their own people, in their own place, not in any place with respect to Sydney or Brisbane or Vancouver, unless they want to go by choice.”

Fresh from his poll-topping result in his Mayo constituency in the west of Ireland, Mr Kenny pledged to bring people closer to government

He said the gap between politicians and the people will be closed: “It was in that gap that the rot started and that the rot flourished,” he said to a roaring applause.”

“The new government will be one of responsibility, not privilege. A government of public duty not personal entitlement. A government looking with confidence and courage to the future, not with guilt and regret at the past.”

The Fine Gael leader flew by helicopter from Mayo to Dublin to be greeted by hundreds of supporters where he delivered a seven-minute victory speech. “We stand on the brink of fundamental change in how we regard ourselves, in how we regard our economy and in how we regard our society,” he said.

As his party stood poised to enter Government for the first time in 14 years, Mr Kenny asked the people for their prayers, their good wishes and faith “as I undertake the task of building and leading the next Government”.

In an often philosophical speech, he said: “For the next four years, let us be mindful of our duty and our responsibility during the period of the next government, and above all, in the midst of what is for many a national heartbreak, let us be mindful of each other.”

Mr Kenny told how he had received a phone call from the former Fine Gael leader, in the 1970s, Liam Cosgrave. “He said to me, ‘I’m an old man, but you have made me proud’.”

Mr Kenny added: “I hope that during the period of the next Government we can restore that sense of pride to our people at home and abroad, and have our nation, our small country, truly take its place as it should be, right up there with the very best.”

The people appointed as ministers will set out to be the hardest working Government of the last 50 years “because that is what it’s going to take,” he said.

“On this spring day let us begin again to bring new life, new clarity, new shared purpose to Irish life, to Irish politics, and to the Irish future.”

He added: “So let’s lift our hearts up, and let’s lift our chins up, because now we’ve been given a responsibility and a mandate and let us not shirk in our duty to our people.”