REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF A NEW CENTRE FOR THE NCBI
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF A NEW CENTRE FOR THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR THE BLIND OF IRELAND
Dia dhíbh a chairde. Tá an-áthas orm bheith i bhur measc inniu ar an ócáid speisialta seo.
Chairman, distinguished guests, members of the National Council For the Blind of Ireland, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very pleased to have been invited here to Wexford, today, to officially open these fine new facilities which set a new agenda for the future in terms of joined up services for those with sensory or physical disabilities.
Our world is largely designed for the mobile by the mobile, by the hearing for the hearing, by the sighted for the sighted and for generations the hopes and dreams, talents and abilities of those with disability were simply overlooked or dismissed. Today we reflect on those days with shame and deep sadness thinking of the lives lived in such disempowering frustration and we think of the awesome waste of talent and of life itself. We live in better times and in particular in better informed times where the voices of those with disability have challenged society in general on its capacity and its willingness to be truly inclusive. NCBI has been a great champion of the rights of those with visual impairment to be part of the mainstream, to be completely integrated into all aspects of everyday life, to have their talents blossom in an environment which offers them the widest range of choices and opportunities and welcomes their contribution to building up civic society.
In the preamble to our Constitution there is an agenda set for the Irish people and it is the establishment of a ‘true social order’. Those who suffer the consequences of exclusion know better than most the extent to which our society is still journeying towards that noble destination, for they are the test of the distance we have yet to travel and they are the reproach, the challenge which spurs us on to reveal the genius of this Republic of equals in all its fullness.
The work done in this centre focussing as it does on the individual, making him or her stronger, more confident, more independent, more fulfilled, is also about the business of strengthening family, community and country. There is manifest progress in the sophistication of the range of services and the integrated nature of those services as other voluntary organisations dealing with disability share resources, share insight and grow in partnership. The partnership with health boards and local and central government, the support of local business and the local community - these all showcase the fresh new spirit of joint enterprise and endeavour at work here and the visionary generous harnessing of the very best resources and skill available in our country.
This place honours well NCBI’s mission statement “to optimise the intellectual, social and economic independence of visually impaired people and to minimise the disabling effects of visual impairment.” I congratulate everyone involved in making today happen – bringing this fine new centre at Cinema Lane from plans and drawings and aspiration to the reality, the centre of excellence that we see around us today. For all those people whose lives will be profoundly touched by what you do here in the years ahead I say a big thank you to the NCBI and its army of volunteers and supporters, to the South Eastern Health Board and everyone else who worked to make this development happen. I include in those thanks, the Irish Wheelchair Association, the National Association for Deaf People and the Wexford Deaf Society who will make their home here too and who devote themselves to making life better for people with disabilities and to making Ireland a society where all sit at the table of life’s banquet and none are excluded.
I wish all those who use this centre, all who work in it and all who support it, every success in the years ahead. May the lives changed here vindicate the faith and hard work of those who have created it and may each of those lives bring us nearer to the Ireland of lived, spontaneous equality we know we are capable of creating. It is a great honour for me to now declare the Lochrann Centre officially open.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh go léir anseo agus guím rath Dé air sa todhchaí. Go raibh maith agaibh