REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF SPRINGFIELD CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF SPRINGFIELD CHILD DEVELOPMENT CENTRE BALLINASLOE
Tá gliondar croí orm bheith anseo libh inniu ag an ócáid seo agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl díbh as bhur gcaoin-chuireadh.
I wish, first of all, to thank Paddy McGinley for the kind invitation to perform the official opening of Springfield Child Development Centre. My visit today gives me the opportunity to acknowledge the tremendous work done here and to congratulate you all for your dedication and commitment to the children who will benefit so much from the services provided.
There are ongoing struggles and challenges faced by those who have learning difficulties and their families, which many of you here will know better than most. There is a level of vulnerability to be protected, a level of independence and self-fulfillment to be achieved, a level of dependence to be effectively supported and sustained, there is a human person to be cherished and helped to be happy, there are carers to be given hope, respite and credible, accessible assistance.
The challenge of providing suitable, effective education for people with special needs can be difficult but that is not the same as impossible as you have shown. To meet the highly individualised needs of each pupil places demands for customised programmes but these programmes can be very effective and successful where there is co-operation and collaboration between teachers, special needs assistants, nurses and clinical staff working in partnership with parents. The greatest gift that education confers is personal empowerment. It opens up choices, opens up life itself in all its fullness, reveals talents and teaches skills, takes us on a journey into ourselves, allows us the chance to achieve, to know the joy of self-respect, self-esteem, esteem of others, pride and admiration for what we have accomplished. I know that is what you want, what you work tirelessly to achieve here.
A week ago today, I had the pleasure of opening the Special Olympic Games at Parnell Park in Dublin. They were the biggest National Games ever, with over 400 athletes from countries throughout Europe joining 1,500 Irish athletes. I witnessed the gutsy determination, the commitment, the effort of those remarkable people whose focus was on their ability, not disability. We should never underestimate the power and the empowerment that comes from self-belief. But that self-belief has to be nurtured and sustained day in and day out. For those with learning disabilities and for parents, families and carers, life can seem to be a constant unrelenting struggle with many worries and concerns, the very kind of worries and concerns that eat away our energy and sap our self-confidence.
Here at the Springfield Centre you take the biggest of those worries and you address them. You give people confidence in themselves by giving them confidence in the future. Graham Green once wrote ‘there is a moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in’.
And the future you let in is so different from the past. You are helping Irish Society to understand more comprehensively the needs and rights of our brothers and sisters who suffer disability. You are showing how their giftedness can be harnessed. You are showing what it takes to make a truly inclusive society. You are also showcasing partnership at its best for this development is about respectful partnership between the statutory and voluntary sectors.
Here in Ireland we have an enviable tradition of partnership between the statutory and voluntary bodies serving people with intellectual disabilities and their families. We will see it at its best in June, 2003 when Ireland becomes the first country outside the U.S. to host the Special Olympic World Games. It is a colossal undertaking, which rests on the faith we have in our culture of volunteer endeavour and generosity - faith in our people to respond to the call for support for the thousands of special visitors who will come to our shores next year. I know we will make it a trip to remember. I know it because when I come to a place like this I see the great goodness that is already at work every day in our country.
I congratulate you all for what you have achieved, individually and as part of the Springfield team. Your work is bringing dignity, choice and fulfilment to our brothers and sisters. It is bringing peace of mind and hope to those who love them. May the future just keep getting better and better for all those who live here and those who work here.
And now it gives me great pleasure to declare the Springfield Child Development Centre officially open.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh. Gura fada buan sibh.
Go raibh maith agat.