`Most of America comes from Mayo'

Any fears that demographic changes will affect the flow of recruitment by multinationals setting up in the State were laid to rest by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, last week as he addressed a conference on the international financial services sector.

Coca-Cola, in fact, had been worried about the availability of personnel for its new plant in Ballina, Co Mayo. What it forgot, Mr Ahern said, was that "most of America comes from Mayo" and 6,500 people had applied for the first 30 jobs advertised. And as for the declining birth rate, Mr Ahern remarked that there was no possibility of running short of "Paddys". He had the funny feeling that "with the help of Dana and a few other people" the birth rate might rise again. Whoops! Looks like Fianna Fail is no longer wooing Ms Scallon to join the party.