Remarks by President McAleese at a IBEC/CBI NI Joint Business Council Meeting, DCU
Remarks by President McAleese at a IBEC/CBI NI Joint Business Council Meeting, Dublin City University Wednesday 25th October 06
Dia dhiabh go léir tráthnóna. Tá mé iontach sásta bheith anseo libh ar an ócáid speisialta seo.
Good evening, everybody.
Its good to be part of this IBEC/CBI Joint Business Council meeting and I am very grateful to the President of IBEC, Mr Maurice Healy and Director General of IBEC Turlough O’Sullivan for the invitation. We gather at a time which is certainly the most propitious in the fifteen year history of the Council, when much of what you have preached has begun at last to be mainstreamed and when the culture of cooperation you have so long espoused is set to come into its own and reveal its potential.
Long before the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, this Council was focussed on the development of North/South economic and business links. In much grimmer and less encouraging times you showed both courageous and imaginative leadership, and that leadership was crucial in dismantling the old wasteful culture of alienation which was history’s unfortunate legacy to all of us.
Thankfully those days are now behind us. The North is building on recent progress and endeavouring to engineer an economic transformation for the future while the South is looking to maintain its competitiveness and sustain the unprecedented levels of growth that it has experienced in recent years.
You have done much good work to promote a robust cross‑border trade and to improve the image of Ireland and its products abroad. Indeed, IBEC and CBI NI have acted as partners in many practical activities to open up new opportunities for businesses all over the island. Breaking down barriers to trade is, I believe, the basis of a fundamental realignment of our relations in other fields of activity as well, and is a major contribution to the creation of lasting peace and understanding among the people of this island.
An important example of that breaking down of barriers is the successful relations which the Joint Council has established with one of the North/South Implementation Bodies established under the Good Friday Agreement – InterTradeIreland, the all‑island body responsible for trade and business development. Although coming with a different focus on the development of the island economy, you have seen that, properly crafted, your efforts are mutually reinforcing. This collaboration has, already, a most impressive track record.
The high levels of consultation, discussion and agreement both between the Joint Council and InterTradeIreland, as well as with other organisations in initiatives such as the North South Roundtable Group are vital in harnessing the energy and experience that will drive this re-imagined island economy. We are already seeing huge new synergies from initiatives like pooling resources in trade promotion - opening trade missions to companies throughout this island, including the very successful trade mission to India last January.
That spirit of co-operation has been in evidence at many levels – for example the all‑island approach to forecasting labour market skills needs, the increased collaboration in science and technology to develop an innovation culture, and the all‑island approach to business development through knowledge exchange and collaboration in networks and clusters. Each is beneficial in itself but at another level they are seeding a new culture of cooperation, a new way of looking at one another and a healthier way – one which underpins the peace and prosperity we all desire.
It is important to remember that these are beginnings. We are at the beginning of an era with hopefully much more mutual support and cooperation to follow. Earlier this week, we saw the ESRI set out the benefits of more cross-border collaboration in the context of preparation for the new National Development Plan. The two Governments are also completing work on a comprehensive study on the island economy. I know that both IBEC and CBI NI had representatives on the Oversight Group of the Study, and I am sure that your involvement was invaluable to the process.
All of these developments offer real hope and unprecedented opportunity for the economy of Northern Ireland.
On the political front, I believe the agreement at St Andrews is the final step towards at last unlocking the massive potential for permanent peace and progress on this island. No doubt there will be some bumps in the road, but I welcome this development and look forward to the very real and tangible benefits that a full and lasting settlement will bring to the people of Northern Ireland, to the entire island and to these neighbouring islands.
The Joint Business Council is a long time pioneer of an all-island economy and your work is evidently bearing fruit. Other exciting projects are still in the pipeline. I am thinking of the twenty ‘Key Action Points’ drawn up by the Joint Business Council which includes the establishment of an all‑island single electricity market, breaking down the barriers for labour mobility on both sides of the border, and monitoring skills needs and gaps on an all-island basis. Following through on each of those brings forward the day when this island’s real genius reveals itself.
Northern Ireland captured the first industrial revolution with phenomenal success. The Republic of Ireland captured the second industrial revolution also with phenomenal success. We really should try to capture the third together, to show to ourselves, and to the world, what the rich mix of talents and perspectives this island holds, is capable of achieving when it pulls together to bring prosperity to all. That vision has needed champions to get off the starting blocks and now it needs champions to get it across the hurdles that lie ahead, every one of which is simply a rite of passage to the best destination this island, and its children, has ever known. It is a place that should frighten no-one but inspire everyone.
The success of the Joint Council’s mission, to increase trade, to grow the businesses on the island of Ireland, and to improve our competitiveness, allows us in this generation to face the future and the world with a level of confidence and hope which were denied to so many other generations. I thank you for that legacy, for all you have done to create it and all you will do to sustain it. I hope every one of us will soon see between Ireland, North and South, the emergence of a robust new culture of comfortable good neighbourliness and dynamic partnership. That we are sitting on the cusp of its arrival is in no small measure due to the pragmatism, patience and practical work of IBEC CBI Joint Business Council. May vindication be a short time in coming.
I hope you have a most enjoyable evening.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúil agaibh. Go n-éirí go geal libh. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.