REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE OVERALL PRIZE FOR THE AIB BETTER IRELAND
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE PRESENTATION OF THE OVERALL PRIZE FOR THE AIB BETTER IRELAND AWARDS
Tá mé iontach sásta bheith anseo tráthnóna ag an ócáid taitneamhach agus spreagúil seo, agus ba mhaith liom comhghairdeas a dhéanamh le gach duine a ghlac páirt sa chomórtas.
It is a great pleasure for me to have been asked to present this overall Award to the very worthy winners: Aislinn Adolescent Addiction Treatment Centre from Kilkenny. The Award recognises the exceptional work of the Centre in providing residential and aftercare services to help young men and women address their addiction problems. Their work has restored hope to many families torn apart by the devastating downstream consequences of drug addiction. To those who have been or are addicts, Aislinn has given the precious opportunity and support needed to change their own futures, to claim back control over their lives and to establish their own self-worth. I would like to pay grateful tribute to all those involved in the Centre’s work for their vision, perseverance and tremendous dedication and I warmly congratulate you on this Award.
Winning the overall Award – and indeed the four category awards - is a truly wonderful achievement, but taking part in the AIB Better Ireland Awards is every bit as important as winning for these awards open a window on the enormous amount of good, essential and life-changing community and voluntary work which goes on day in and day out in our country. Much of this work happens simply and solely because people dare to care about each other and about the world we live in. In Ireland we are fortunate that so many men, women and children are passionately committed to improving and enriching the lives of those around them.
That is the case for every single person, every group, which has taken part in the AIB Better Ireland Awards, whether you reached this final stage or not. For those who wonder if we are becoming a more selfish, less giving people, evidence to the contrary is here in abundance. You don’t do any of this for thanks, but it is important that every now and then, we do say thanks – a warm thank you to each and every one of you for all that you have done and continue doing. And that is exactly what these Awards are about – saying well done, we recognise and admire what you have achieved, we want to encourage you to keep doing it for we know we would be grievously impoverished as a people in so many ways, if your work was left undone.
Such a forum for offering thanks and encouragement is only made possible through the generosity of AIB in sponsoring these Awards once again and so making it possible for us to recognise and be reassured by the decency and generosity of spirit within our communities.
Congratulations to every single group that entered, to the 100 local Award winners, the 24 finalist groups who are gathered here in Dublin, in the Waterfront Hall and at Limerick Racecourse; to the Winners of each Category; and finally, of course, once again to our Overall Winners, Aislinn Adolescent Addiction Treatment Centre.
Go maire sibh go léir.