Enda's stock phrases a big hit with the target market

AS THE Enda Kenny whirlwind tour of the United States rolled into the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, it was only appropriate that the Taoiseach should resort to some stock phrases.

Ireland is open for business. We have turned the corner. Now is the time to invest in the country.

It’s a pitch he has been making since touching down in Chicago last Friday, delivered from a single transferable speech aimed at the business community and potential investors.

Even Kenny must be tiring of a script he could deliver in his sleep. Yesterday, he started dipping into his back catalogue of favoured phrases from last year’s election campaign – remember the line about Ireland being “the best little country to do business in, to raise a family in and to grow old in”.

All that was missing was a five-point plan.

Though maddeningly familiar to the journalists travelling with him, his scripts are going down well with the target audience.

It was after all Ireland Day at the stock exchange and the heavy hitters were out in force to see the Taoiseach ring the bell.

The blue-jacketed traders had been at work for several hours before Kenny pressed the button but they stopped to look at the fuss around the Irish entourage.

Business titans like Joe Petrowski, boss of Gulf Oil, and private equity investor Wilbur Ross were listed as attendees for the event, though Ross, who has bought a chunk of Bank of Ireland, wasn’t to be seen.

Not for the first time since the Moriarty tribunal report came out over a year ago, Digicel chairman Denis O’Brien was sharing a platform with the Taoiseach.

O’Brien and the chief of Providence Resources, Tony O’Reilly jnr, were among those sharing the balcony over the trading floor with Kenny as he rang the stock exchange bell. We’re used to hearing of business battles between O’Briens and O’Reillys but yesterday it was smiles all round.

Kenny got to ring the bell last year but this time was special, it being St Patrick’s Day, or thereabouts.

The international media came along to interview the Taoiseach and his handlers were giddy with excitement.

But where was Joan Burton, the Minister assigned to travel to New York as part of the St Patrick’s Day exodus? Joan was around all right, having fulfilled 41 engagements in the Big Apple over the past week, but chose to stay upstairs at a seminar.

By the time she emerged, Kenny was gone. Any tete-a-tete between the Taoiseach and his independent-minded Minister would have to wait until reality returns back in Dublin.