REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR ESCORTS OF THE YOUNG CITIZENS AWARD WINNERS
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION IN ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN FOR ESCORTS OF THE YOUNG CITIZENS AWARD WINNERS
Dia dhíbh go léir is fáilte chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Hello everybody.
Both Martin and myself are delighted to welcome all of you here to Áras an Uachtaráin, especially those of you who have travelled long distances to be with us today.
Thank you all for being so patient while the Young Citizens received their awards, and indeed thank you for bringing them today.
We wanted to thank so many that it became impossible to accommodate yourselves as well as the winners over in the main house.
It does have one advantage. It gives me the chance to say something our Award winners deserve to have repeated – they are wonderful, first-class young citizens. I do not know if I have ever been among so many young people who set themselves such high challenges and have achieved so much.
I want to say a special thank you for all the support, the coaching, the mentoring, which I know you have given to our Young Citizens. It is an invaluable investment in their future and one which will be paying dividends throughout their lives. It is also a huge investment in our civic society – strengthening all of us, for we all benefit when our citizens are community spirited and actively, intelligently, engaged in building up the common good. I hope you are proud of all you have done to encourage and to facilitate our Young Citizens’ achievements.
It was, indeed, a privilege for me to have this opportunity to honour their achievements, and the achievements of all the Young Citizens Award Winners.
Martin and I hope that your visit here today will be a memorable one. We hope you will enjoy yourselves and take this opportunity to make new friends, and that you will take the opportunity to relax in each other’s company and exchange a story or two.
I would like to thank our entertainers, the wonderful musicians from Comhaltas, our friends from Civil Defence for their expert assistance and the staff here at the Áras who work hard to make days like this enjoyable for everyone.
Have a wonderful time.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.