REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A CLOSING RECEPTION TO THE FIRST INTERTRADEIRELAND ECONOMIC FORUM
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A CLOSING RECEPTION FOR DELEGATES TO THE FIRST INTERTRADEIRELAND ECONOMIC FORUM
Is cúis mhór áthais dom fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Dia dhíbh go léir agus fáilte. Good afternoon everybody.
Firstly, may I extend to you all the traditional welcome of the house – céad míle fáilte, a hundred thousand welcomes. I know that some of you have travelled a long way to be in Ireland for today’s Forum and some have come from a little bit nearer, but wherever you hail from, on behalf of Martin and myself I am delighted to welcome you here today to Áras an Uachtaráin. I hope you will enjoy this afternoon, relax and unwind and feel at home as you bring to end a very worthwhile day of discussion, debate and networking.
My congratulations to David Dobbin, Liam Nellis and their colleagues for the idea of today’s InterTradeIreland Economic Forum, the first of its kind and a hugely timely initiative. I understand that the goal set by the Forum was to seek to develop a consensus view from leading economic experts on the likely extent, depth and duration of the current global downturn and to consider Government and private sector responses in an island context. Nothing like an easy challenge on a nice June Thursday! Seriously, I am delighted at a number of levels that InterTrade has undertaken such an important initiative at this time. Ireland, North and South, in common with vast tracts of the world, is still reeling from the ferocity and velocity of the global downturn. The hit involved has been huge at so many levels, not least in the lives of people, with so many losing their jobs and uncertainty surrounding the jobs of so many others.
From a situation where just a very short time ago we were riding high on the crest of the greatest wave of economic progress this island had ever seen, we are now back struggling in historically more familiar waters. Like any crisis in life, the first requirement is a cool head and a forensic analysis of what has gone wrong and how it can be put right. That is why this Forum is so timely. At a moment like this, no one person or mind is going to have the magic answer on their own, but the job of leaders is to absorb the uncertainty and plot a roadmap through it. The best way to do that is to bring as you have done a range of minds, insights and wisdoms together for a collective examination of what is needed. Looking at your list of speakers, that you have certainly done today. I am sure that much lively discussion flowed from the contributions they made.
There is another reason also why I think today’s gathering was so special and so important. InterTradeIreland is a product of the most precious gift of all on this island at this time – peace among our people. For the seven and half decades prior to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the realities of history, politics and conflict meant that on this small island we were cut off from each other in so many ways. The twisted knots of division and mistrust meant that much of our potential as partners and good neighbours, economically, politically and socially was simply wasted. Peace has transformed that and little by little a new future of good neighbourliness and organic cross-border synergies is being cultivated - thanks in part to your efforts.
InterTradeIreland is both a fruit of that new beginning and the seed-corn of the future. In this the first post-peace-process economic crisis it is heartening that we can harness the business acumen that Northern Ireland has rightly been famed for over many generations and the more recent entrepreneurial dynamism of the South, so that we can draft that roadmap together. It is no small task, more like taking on K2 than the Mountains of Mourne but as the old Irish proverb says, two shortens the journey. The InterTradeIreland Economic Forum today was part of that journey and I feel very sure that we are well established at base camp thanks to your joint efforts.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir. Thank you very much.