During the course of this estimates campaign that will be ending up with a situation where the allocations that will be made will require the implementation in many respects of the Good Friday. . . of the, sorry, the Croke Park agreement which is about redeployment which is about better work practices.
– Taoiseach Brian Cowen on Morning Ireland
He sounded half way between drunk and hung-over, and totally disinterested. – Fine Gael's Simon Coveney on Twitter
I think everyone is entitled to some socialisation. – Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey defends his boss
He was hoarse and groggy and congested early in the morning, which does happen an awful lot of people. – Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin launches a new euphemism
When you land at Heathrow you sometimes feel as though you were in a third-world country . . . an aggressive new atheism has spread throughout Britain. – Papal adviser Cardinal Walter Kaspar
A crucible of today's humanity, with its diversity and problems. – Papal spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi explains what Cardinal Kaspar meant to say about Britain
A fantasy of farraginous, farcical, fatuous, feculent, facile facetiousness. – Description of the theory of evolution by John May, author of The Origin of Specious Nonsense , which Minister of State for Science Conor Lenihan was due to launch
This is a situation I had thought Europe would not have to witness again after the second World War. – EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding on France's expulsions of Roma families
The Bible says lust in your heart is committing adultery. So you can't masturbate without lust. – Christine O'Donnell, winner of the Republican Party primary in Delaware, in a 1999 quote revived by her opponents
He is an unassuming legend and in many ways he has become a treasured national institution. – Taoiseach Brian Cowen on Micheál Ó Muircheartaigh