REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO THE COLORADO BUSINESS LEADERSHIP LUNCHEON PINNACLE CLUB
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO THE COLORADO BUSINESS LEADERSHIP LUNCHEON PINNACLE CLUB, FRIDAY, 19 MAY, 2006
Dia dhíbh a chairde inniu. Tá an-áthas orainn bheith i bhur measc i Denver.
We are delighted to be here with you all today. Sincere thanks for that warm and generous welcome to Martin and me and indeed the delegation accompanying me.
This is my first visit to the “Centennial State” of Colorado, but I hope it will be one of many visits back and forth between Ireland and this great State. Yours is rightly regarded as a very vibrant economy which has made a fine job of dealing with the challenges of our increasingly globalised world. Ireland’s economy too has made a much-admired name for itself in recent years and indeed has become one of the world’s most globalised economies. Neither of us arrived where we are by closing our hearts and minds to the stories of others and in fact it is our very openness and curiosity which have been such drivers of change. We have a lot of value in both our stories that is worth sharing with each other.
I wish to thank Joe Blake, Tom Honig, Rob Cohen and the rest of the team at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce for organizing this Colorado Business Leadership Luncheon. The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce has a proud and long history dating as far back as 1867 when, as the Denver Board of Trade, it was successful in bringing the nation’s railroads to Denver. We know that the railroads attracted thousands of Irish labourers and, along with mining in this area, underpinned the beginnings of an Irish community here. With almost 140 years of business experience in Denver, the Chamber now supports almost 3,000 member businesses and I congratulate you on your role in sustaining and developing Denver’s thriving economy.
Colorado’s history plays a major part in the contemporary economy of the state. Denver’s glorious sunshine and dry air attracted scores of tuberculosis patients to the area in the late 1800s. Today, this legacy has resulted in the city’s highly respected reputation as a medical research centre of excellence. As we look around us this afternoon, we are surrounded by the majestic peaks of the stunning Rocky Mountains. Not only are they beautiful, but these mountains are rich in minerals and Colorado, of course, started out as a gold and mining centre. The State now ranks an impressive 9th nationwide in concentration of doctorate degrees in science and engineering. As well as being home to the most federal government agencies and offices outside of Washington D.C., Denver has also embraced the information age, the envy of others with over 3,700 software companies in the Denver metro area alone.
With our growing, technology driven globalised economies, Ireland and Colorado have much in common. We also share a strong focus on education and I am delighted to see that both Colorado State University and Regis University are represented here this afternoon.
I welcome also the fact that both Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland are represented here today. These Agencies are charged with the development of the economies on both parts of the island of Ireland. Enterprise Ireland is joined by five Irish companies that have offices here in Colorado: Digisoft.tv, a company based in County Cork, Skillsoft, Bárd, Xsil Ltd. and Prime Carrier. Through its Northern Ireland Technology and Development Centre in Denver, Invest Northern Ireland has assisted in the development of business deals worth $30 million between Colorado and Northern Ireland. Thankfully as our economies North and South develop, they are growing closer together. We are beginning to see a new all-island economy emerge. We are combining forces and pooling our resources where it makes sense to do so. We are taking an all-island approach to how we develop our infrastructure, how we develop our skills. We are working closely together to promote trade with the island as a whole, for the benefit of everyone on the island.
North / South Co-operation is one of the success stories of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. It applies not just to the development of an all island economy but to a wide variety of issues of mutual interest. Opening up to others, reaching out to them and forging new connections has value and makes sense not just in a political sense but also in economic and cultural terms. It can transform how we view the world and how we relate to it.
It is on this topic that I would like to speak to you today. The Ireland that some of you will have known has changed dramatically over the last decade or so. Our economy has grown tremendously, presenting us with a raft of new challenges and many opportunities. These challenges are very different to those we faced in the late 1980s. Ireland was then a country with very high unemployment, where opportunities were scarce, so scarce that for so many of our people, our very best, young well-educated people, opportunity was only to be found in other parts of the world including for so many, here in the United States. The full truth of this is evident when we look at the census figures - the population of Ireland fell in every census between 1841 and 1961, the scattering of an impoverished people to far distant places. No testament to our success can be greater than the fact that Ireland is now a country that more people come to than leave, and where many who left our shores because of lack of opportunity found themselves able to return because of a wealth of new opportunities created by a vibrant, innovative and enterprising economy.
From an inward looking past, Ireland is now regarded as one of the most open economies and the Dallas Federal Reserve has estimated that Ireland is the second most globalised economy in the world. This didn’t happen by chance nor by accident. It happened because of policy choices, set against a background of a growing world economy and a people who were prepared to make sacrifices to encourage peace and prosperity.
The story of Ireland’s transformation is complex. Many interwoven strands make up the tapestry of our island today.
In many ways, Ireland was well positioned to take advantage of the developing world economy of the 1990s. By then we were a well established member of the European Union and had benefited greatly from measures put in place to boost the economies of the countries on the periphery of Europe.
EU Membership broadened our horizons and raised our expectations. We gained tariff free access to the markets of what are today in total 25 European partners, and instead of confining our efforts to our traditional markets, Irish exporters were free to sell across mainland Europe. As a result of the changed political landscape in former Eastern Europe, Ireland has re-established and renewed political and cultural ties. We have developed and re-kindled strong friendships with our European partners not least with our nearest neighbour Britain. Thankfully the relationship between our two islands is better now than at any other time in history.
We have been able to play our part in one of the great ventures for peace in the second half of the twenty century, the movement towards an increasingly integrated and united Europe; a Europe which is such a significant partner of the United States. It is in this light that we can see how the benefits of EU membership to Ireland are matched by our historically strong political and cultural connection to the United States. According to the 2000 Census 35 million people trace part at least of their heritage to Ireland. This community is aware and proud of its Irish heritage. It is conscious of shared traditions in politics, law and culture. Increasingly it is conscious of a shared economy.
While Ireland had long sought US Foreign Direct Investment, even as we were emerging from protectionist thinking of the 1950s, we were particularly well placed to benefit from US investment in Europe. Today US Foreign Direct Investment accounts directly for 90,000 jobs in Ireland. The US is our second largest trading partner, our first investment partner and a recent study at Johns Hopkins University showed that the US invested two and a half times more in Ireland than in the Peoples Republic of China in 2003.
We also welcome the fact that today Irish companies employ more than 55,000 people in 35 states in the US. Investment flows both ways between Europe and the US and are to the benefit of all of our economies. In 2003 3.2 million Europeans worked for US firms in Europe while 4.2 million US workers worked for European firms in the US.
Education, has also been a critical factor, a hugely important factor, in the dramatic growth in our economy. Ireland has had a long history of valuing educational opportunity; stories of hedge schoolmasters who traversed the island teaching Greek and Latin to young Irish have remained in our collective folk memory. More recently however education was prized for what it offered in terms of job opportunity and security. Indeed, one of the most significant and farsighted steps taken by an Irish government was the decision to make second level education free in 1969. In the 1990s we consolidated this by improving access to third level education which today is also fees free.
Today, we have one of the highest rates of third level qualifications in the European Union. In the mid 1960s fewer that 20,000 students were attending college in Ireland while by 1999 this had risen almost six fold to 112,000. We expect that shortly 40% of our working population will have third level qualifications. The increased participation of women at 3rd level is also striking. When I started Law School in the late 1960’s women only made up 20% of the student body, today over half the students in our universities are female.
As well as increasing participation rates, Ireland sought to introduce programmes that would match the abilities of students to the needs of a global economy. More of our students are now graduating in science, technology and business.
This has played a huge role in providing an educated and flexible labour force capable of taking advantage of developments in the global economy as well as developing a more innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.
Having engaged so enthusiastically with the outside world and having welcomed people from so many countries to Ireland, the Irish now travel the globe in ever increasing numbers on holiday or on business, a migration that can only help us understand each other better and enrich our appreciation of other traditions and cultures. With this country we enjoy a special affinity, a kinship that we cherish and hold dear. In the West of Ireland, America has long been referred to as the ‘next parish’ where so many sons and daughters of Ireland have made their home and have prospered. To quote an excerpt in a letter home from one Irish emigrant here in the late 19th Century who said “To speak in truth, my last thoughts going to bed at night and first arising in the morning are of home. The thoughts of it everlastingly haunt my mind….. But then I still think that I am in as good a country as there is in the world today for a poor-man….and any man here that will work and save his earnings and make use of his brains can grow rich”.
Just as the Irish miners and railroaders prospered in this part of the world, I hope that your businesses will continue to prosper and that the relationships between this great State and Ireland will continue to grow and develop with your help and with ours.
Gurb fada buan sibh. Go raibh maith agaibh.