A selection of this week's quotes
We are in a new era, never faced by anybody of our generation before. This is the worst financial crisis to hit the world since 1929. – Taoiseach Brian Cowen at the Fianna Fáil ardfheis.
. . . the build-up to his speech was such that he could never really hope to match expectations. Those increasingly tiresome invocations of Barack Obama didn't help either. This isn't America. Brian Cowen is not the US president. Get over it. – Miriam Lord on listening to the speech.
It is time we got real in this country. – Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan on the "moment of national crisis" which he told the Dáil had arrived with the disclosure that further cuts of between €2.5 and €3 billion were needed via an emergency budget.
The figures confirm the Government's miserable failure in stabilising our finances, having now tried on several different occasions. – Labour finance spokeswoman Joan Burton reacts.
It's going to happen. – Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary on the suggestion of charging passengers for using the in-flight toilets.
I am prepared to take my fair share of the green revolution on my shoulders but I am less keen on having it in my face. – British business secretary Lord Mandelson on being "slimed" when an environmental activist thew green goo at him yesterday.
We are telling the colonialists we are not succumbing; we are not submitting. We will not kneel. – Sudan hardman and indicted war criminal, Gen Omar al-Bashir.
"This Is It" really means this is it. – Michael Jackson announcing plans for a series of "final curtin call" concerts, starting in London in July, his first major live performance in 12 years.