Bertie Ahern was in presidential mode yesterday, deriding detractors of the economy as "creeping Jesuses" blinkered by orthodoxy.

To those who were upset if the news was not bad, Mr Ahern had one message: wise up. With tax cuts worth £1 billion coming into effect this month, the Taoiseach spoke as if the Irish had never had it so good.

"We have an unlimited future, as long as we pull together," he told delegates at the IMI conference. "We're not going back. This is a great country."

And no, the Taoiseach did not agree that Killarney was best seen through the rear view mirror, as suggested this week by food writers John and Sally McKenna.

For all that, Mr Ahern did say that "Killarney could do with a ring road". And, while he did not specify what class of a highway in Co Kerry he was thinking of, the Taoiseach's commitment to the information superhighway was clear to all.

An alliance with US firm Global Crossing would increase broadband capacity 15-fold this year. Ballymun, Ballyfermot and Ballyshannon, Co Donegal would have equal access to this network, said the Taoiseach.

He even suggested that IMI chairman Mr Kieran McGowan could move to Ballyshannon. "I'm giving you the broadband. The quality of life is much better and there's a higher percentage of votes for my party."

But Mr Ahern was not the only man with motivation on his mind. Late in the afternoon, delegates were treated to a bravura performance from people management guru, Mr Frank Dick.

Mr Dick cited a notice in a garage owned by the Ferrari Formula 1 team, whom he advises. It said: "Perfection is the dream. It's the fight to get there that's the reality."

Prof Kjell Nordstrom, a funky academic from the Stockholm School of Economics, referred to an entirely different "reality". In a talk on making business attractive to the "next generation", Prof Nordstrom said the key to success was to appeal to the ethics and aesthetics of the market.

Showing a photograph of 10 middle-aged "grey men" from the board of a leading Swedish company, Prof Nordstom remarked: "They're going to have to flog their products to a young woman with an immigrant background in the middle of her career with a slight bisexual tendency!"