My opinion has always been that when it comes to deciding where specialist centres should be located, whether they are regional or national specialities, it should be done on clinical grounds.

The gutter is Bertie Ahern's natural habitat.

Marriage in our Constitution is very clear that it's a man marrying a woman, largely with a view to having a natural family, and if they are unable to do that, obviously then they can adopt.

Nobody that I know would ever say that I'm sexist.

It's not something that defines me. I'm not a half-Indian politician or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter... it is part of my character, I suppose.

We would only need a bespoke solution for Northern Ireland if Britain leaves the Single Market.

What I would rather see, what I think would be the best outcome, is a very close relationship between the United Kingdom and the E.U.

One of the big problems in Dail Eireann is the lack of women.

I miss being able to have a drink in my local pub, which I can't do anymore, or being able to go to the shops without every second person staring at me and looking at my basket to see what I'm buying.

It's up to American citizens to decide who they elect as president.

We will, of course, work with whoever Americans decide to elect as president.

What are these better deals the U.K. really wants from Europe and other countries? Some more clarity would be helpful.

It's fair to say that the policy and character of my government would be, or the government which I lead, would be very different to that of President Trump.

Enda Kenny has the full support of the Fine Gael parliamentary party.

We can't have a government that will collapse in three months.

Fine Gael is the party of opportunity, and no matter what background you come from, we give people a chance, and it gave me a chance.

I keep my private life to myself, and that's going to continue.

I always think that friends and family are off-bounds. I went into politics; they didn't.

I just want people to know that whatever decisions are made on any issue, I'll make them according to what I believe is in the public interest and my own conscience.

I won't be allowing my own background or my own sexual orientation to dictate the decisions that I make.

Those of us who are in the centre believe in opening up to the world, believe migration on balance is a good thing if it is managed properly, and believe that multilateralism is the best way to solve problems.

Geographically, we are at the periphery of Europe, but I don't see Ireland in that way. The way I see us is as an island at the center of the world.

If Britain doesn't stay in the Single Market or Customs Union, we are very much in favor of a free trade agreement between the U.K. and Europe. We don't want Britain to be punished for its decision to leave, and it is not in our interests for Britain to be punished because we may be the ones who lose out as much if not more than them.

I'm not going to tell the American president how to run America, but I think it is important that when friends are speaking to each other that they are able to be very frank in the views that are exchanged, and I certainly will be doing that.

I am a gay man. It's not a secret, but not something that everyone would necessarily know.

Unless people who voted for unionist parties are suddenly going to vote for a united Ireland, which I don't believe will happen, a border poll will be defeated.

My difficulty with the whole right-left construct is that I don't think it describes modern politics or the modern choices that people face in the world.

If I was to describe myself in terms of a political philosophy, I'd cast myself as a social and economic liberal, which is typically what people describe as being left-of-centre on social issues and right-of-centre on economic issues.

It's not that I'm afraid to be tagged with the label of right-wing or even centre-right; I just don't believe it properly describes either the choice that we face politically or what I'm trying to say.

Prejudice has no hold in this Republic.

The traditional divide between left and right, capital and labor, small state and big state, high taxes and low taxes doesn't define politics in the way it did in the past.

I do think corporations should pay their tax.

I don't think you can make America great again by trying to go back to an old coal-based manufacturing economy that doesn't really exist anymore.

Neither of my parents are involved in politics or anything like that, but my dad is political, certainly, and we would have always talked about politics and religion and money, and all those things that you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table, we did.

I suppose I've always put the career, the job and politics, all of that first.

I am not so naive to think that I can make every problem in the health service go away. No minister can. And never will be able to.

Obviously, nobody likes to read or hear about anyone having a bad experience in our hospitals.

When a hospital isn't under as much pressure, you start to see things slowing down, and it might take five, six, seven days to get the person discharged, and that's the length of stay, so it's all these different factors come into play all the time.

When a hospital is very crowded, there will be a real push to make sure people get their X-rays, get their tests and, you know, 'Let's get them out in four days'.

I don't see myself in politics at 51. I definitely want to do something else.

Politicians should trust people with the truth. Very often, we don't do that.

We have an educated and cynical electorate.

It's amazing that people were talking about me as a future leader back in 2011.

I don't think my election as Taoiseach actually made history - it just reflected it, reflected the enormous changes that had already occurred in our country.

I don't know why, but I've had an interest and passion for politics.

People need to trust what gardai say on the stand, and I can understand that perhaps in a scenario whereby lots of things are happening quickly and people are caught up in the heat of the moment, they may have a recollection that isn't exactly as things happened.

The idea that you could send agricultural products to Tokyo and Osaka and not pay tariffs, and you would have to pay tariffs sending them to Manchester, is quite hard to fathom in the modern world.

An agreement is an agreement, and when you make it, you should stick to it.

Often, the people who speak loudest about republican values are the least when it comes to honouring them.