REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE YOUTH—BEYOND DISABILITY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE YOUTH—BEYOND DISABILITY INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Dia dhíbh a cháirde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc anseo ar an ócáid speisialta seo. Míle buíochas díbh as an gcuireadh agus an fáilte a thug sibh dom.
Thank you for the warm reception and kind invitation to be part of this important Conference focusing on Youth and Disability. I extend a welcome to each delegate and offer the traditional céad míle fáilte - a hundred thousand welcomes to those who are visiting Ireland from abroad. Some of you have come a very long way - from as far even as that beautiful European jewel Slovenia - and we are grateful that you chose to come to our country and to share in this critical debate. Here in Ireland we hope you will help all of us in Europe to chart a new and better future for all of our men and women who struggle to transcend disability and to showcase their abilities.
Youth and Disability is one of the four principal themes of this European Year of People with Disabilities, so it is an area targeted for the kind of special focus which we hope will lead to profound change for the better. Ireland has itself seen the issue of disability move right up the agenda in recent years. We now have the kind of equality legislation and infrastructure which places us ahead of many of our European counterparts. We have a sophisticated and articulate cohort of advocates in the field of disability and with their help our country is travelling the journey towards the kind of full social inclusion which alone marks out a truly equitable and fair society. You are among those advocates and it is your voices, your ideas, your experiences, your imagination, your leadership which will set the agenda for Europe’s disabled citizens of tomorrow.
The slogan “Nothing about us without us” is not just a rallying call against past paternalism, not just a warning that your future cannot be designed without your input, it is also a challenge to every person with a disability, a call to self-belief, to self-assertiveness, a call to take their rightful place in society and to become shapers of their own destiny and the destiny of their country and their continent.
Ireland was privileged to be host to the Special Olympics World Summer Games some weeks ago and there we saw what can be achieved when an entire country gets behind its sons and daughters with disabilities. We saw the awesome courage and talent of the athletes. We saw too the enormous potential of a society focussed on ability. Through those games we looked at our special athletes with a newfound admiration and respect, they looked at themselves with a newfound self-confidence and we began to see a different kind of future for all of us as a community. I was particularly taken by one story of a young man who won two gold medals and one silver medal. At the airport on the way home his coach noticed he had a gold, silver and a bronze. When he was asked where his other gold medal was - he said he had swapped it with a friend who had been disappointed to get bronze instead of gold. That incredible generosity is what we need of you. We need you to be willing to share all you know and to listen to the stories and wisdom of others. I know that simply by being here you are indicating your willingness to work together to find the answers and insights which will help us to make this the best Ireland the best Europe ever for the young disabled citizen - a place where he or she counts in ways that are not just words but are a lived and a happy reality.
No one country, no one person has all the answers. Each of us has a piece, a unique piece of the jigsaw puzzle that we need to put together if the best, the fullest picture is to emerge. We need to share information with our European neighbours on models of good practice and I know that People with Disabilities Ireland Limited (PwDI), who organised a number of regional seminars culminating in this Conference, are playing an important part in this regard with other representative organisations in Europe. It is also marvellous to see that the candidate countries for EU accession are part of this Europe wide debate. In May of next year here in Dublin they will be welcomed into the Union and it is essential that their disabled citizens know from day one that their rights, their needs are already a matter of serious debate and concerted action.
Life makes tough demands of most of us. Life with disability multiplies those demands many times over. In this room are people with stories of extraordinary heroism lived day in and day out, people with hopes, dreams, ambitions, talents, principles, admirable people who build up the civic strength of their communities and their countries because they have been so profoundly tested. No country can afford to sideline or inhibit such a talent base, such a reservoir of endurance, wisdom and experience. Our country and our continent will flourish, will fly on two soaring wings when we can say that opportunity embraces every child regardless of class, creed, gender or disability. We are not yet flying on two wings, not yet able to say that such an embrace is a reality for all but we are getting closer all the time. Old prejudices are disintegrating, old stereotypes tumbling under their own dead weight. You are the people whose lives have challenged those old barriers which disabled the thinking processes of our society and held us back from knowing the potential of our people and knowing our fullest potential as a society.
It is my hope that People with Disabilities Ireland will progress from strength to strength in the coming years, advancing the interests and welfare of young people with disabilities, working in a co-operative and holistic way as a partner with statutory agencies and other organisations, educating all of us and making us impatient for the just and equal world we are well capable of creating and which human decency demands we keep on working towards. I wish you well in your conference deliberations. Go raibh maith agaibh.