HOBNOBBING abroad with TDs is always invigorating, especially when they are guests of builders who might be loosely called "developers abroad". And very broad it is, with most of the 15 recent EU accession states having Irish involved in their refurbishment.

"Where you have bricks-and-mortar, you'll find Paddy" is the deserved legend. Where you find TDs, you will also find clichés. Take the recent visit of Galway West TD Frank Fahey to the Bulgarian capital Sofia, where he performed the opening honours for West Properties, so-named because the founder, Brian Conneely, is from Connemara and many buyers of his Bulgarian properties hail from west of the Shannon. "Bulgarians are very like us," Fahey was quoted, "very friendly and outgoing." Interestingly enough, the same comment is regularly made by other visiting dignitaries, usually TDs, when speaking to media in Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia, et al.

If all those nations are "like us", does that mean they are like each other? Thought we'd ask . . .