REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT A BREAKFAST WITH THE LEADERS
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE AT A BREAKFAST WITH THE LEADERS OF THE LEGAL AND BUSINESS COMMUNITIES
Mr. Aikins
Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Thank you for that very warm welcome. It is an honour for me to accept your kind invitation to address the Dallas Chapter of the American Ireland Fund, and their friends in the wider business and legal communities, here this morning.
Last June, I had the honour to address the Ireland Funds Annual Conference in Dublin – a conference which also marked the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Funds. Over those twenty-five years, the Ireland Funds world-wide have been a reassuring reminder of the remarkable generosity and loyalty of the global Irish family.
I well recall that the Dallas Chapter of the American Ireland Fund was present in strength at the June Conference, and that I met some of you on that occasion. It is a great pleasure to meet you again. Indeed, it seems entirely appropriate to begin my first official visit to Texas in the company of such good friends of Ireland.
Each of you is entitled to the thanks of the Irish people for the interest and concern you have shown in bringing peace and prosperity to our country. There is a lovely old Irish saying ‘Giorraíonn beirt bóthar’- ‘Two shorten the road’ - and on our journey of reconciliation, on our journey to bring a better future to the people who share the island of Ireland, there is no doubt that your company has made the road considerably shorter. It would be great if I could thank you all by name individually and publicly, for you surely deserve that, but it just is not possible. But I can at least make special reference to Dolores McCaul and Mike Corboy, who have been outstandingly generous. And if the Dallas Chapter has spread like a gorse fire since its foundation, bringing together so many good people in a spirit of solidarity and friendship, that is due above all to the excellent work of your regional director, Netta Blanchard. I am profoundly conscious of the fact that there is no law which obliges you to share your life, your interests, your resources with Ireland, no law except that formidable law of human decency, some might call it love, that law which insists that we care for each other, we reach out to the stranger, we make a friend, we offer a helping hand.
Ireland has been blessed in her friends here in the United States. Generations of lives lived, of letters sent, of sad farewells, of new starts, of stories told about an ancient culture, of lives committed to a new country, these have stitched together the stories of Ireland and the United States. Once our greatest export, our greatest gift to this place was our people, and now as Ireland casts off the yokes of history’s making, of under-achievement and of conflict, you have given us the gift of your support and your help.
And it is worth noting just how far we have come with your support on that road to a better future. The young people of today’s Ireland are probably the luckiest generation ever, but as my grandmother was wont to say - you make your luck and many people have painfully crafted these lucky times where peace and prosperity converge to create opportunities unequalled in our history. The signing of the Good Friday Agreement three years ago created the framework for reconciliation, equality and respect between those whose opposing political ambitions had generated violence decade after decade.
Through the Good Friday Agreement the political landscape of the island of Ireland has been transformed forever and for the better. The parties have committed themselves to exclusively peaceful means to resolve their political differences. They have agreed that there can be no change to the position of Northern Ireland unless a majority there favours it. At the same time, the Agreement recognises the birthright of all the people of Northern Ireland to identify themselves as Irish or British or both, as they so choose. It also recognises that if in the future, a majority in Northern Ireland wants to unify with the South, the two sovereign Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom will facilitate their wishes.
This road we are on to peace has its share of potholes and no doubt there are more ahead, but the vehicle we are travelling in is the will of the people, the overwhelming, determined, harnessed will of the people, that there will be peace, there will be partnership, there will be that ‘sea-change on the far side of revenge’, to quote Seamus Heaney. This once fragile plant of peace is firming up more and more each day thanks to the courage of the people, the leadership of the politicians and the encouragement of our friends, willing us on to succeed.
How did we make our luck? In times much worse than these, in times when a daily diet of violence fed mutual hatred and recrimination, when barricades of the mind and of the street kept people from truly knowing each other, let alone working together, there were pioneers - often lonely voices who did not follow the crowd. Working across the divides, putting themselves in the rocks and hard places they laid foundations of hope and were witnesses to the strength of character, the courage, the willingness to change it would take if we were to make peace happen and make it stay. So often the only thing between those pioneers and giving up, between their work and its absence, was the backing of the American Ireland Fund.
The money and effort the Funds invested in individuals and in communities became the alkali which countered the acid of hatred, stopping it coursing freely, at will. The Dallas Chapter of the American Ireland Fund has, I know, been particularly active in this, especially in your work with children. Your work has shown clearly that daily interaction and co-operation can reduce barriers, contradict sectarian stereotypes and, most importantly, promote real trust. Not everyone is on the road yet and not everyone is in step - so we know this process is likely to demand the commitment of our lifetimes, offered day in and day out as our contribution to Ireland’s new and proud future. We will need our friends for the rest of the journey. Two still shortens the road.
And how the landscape of that road is changing in other respects. The successful development of the Irish economy over the past decade, has radically changed Ireland and its relations with the rest of the world, not least the United States. While Ireland’s economic performance is about people as much as about sterile facts and figures, some basic figures are, I think, useful in highlighting just how far we have come.
We have had the fastest growing economy in the European - Union for some years now. Between 1994 and 2000, Ireland’s economic performance out-paced all economies amongst the countries in the OECD, with real GDP growth averaging over 8% per annum. This impressive growth is underpinned by strong economic fundamentals including a falling tax burden, favourable demographics with an increasingly well-educated pool of workers, and continuing foreign direct investment.
Unemployment, for so long one of the most intractable social and economic problems in Irish society, has fallen below 4%, giving us in effect full employment. This is a stark contrast with the situation in the 1980s when we had an unemployment rate of 17% and the tragic waste of human energy and talent that unemployment brings with it, touched so many families across the country.
The existence today of a global Irish family in every part of the world, has been an invaluable source of support in building peace and prosperity. We will never forget, however, that this rich resource was built on generations of emigration which saw wave after wave of our young people leave Ireland’s shores forever. Such involuntary emigration is now, we hope, firmly confined to the past. In fact, Ireland is now experiencing net immigration. Last year, for example, some 45,000 people came to Ireland - half of them returning Irish people, the remainder non-nationals seeking opportunities in our rapidly expanding economy.
There are many factors underlying this success, and it did not happen overnight. The first and most fundamental of these has been consistent investment in education over several decades. In today’s world, no society can hope to achieve a high level of sustained economic success without a well-educated work-force. Ireland’s ability to attract some of the world’s leading high-tech companies, including many of the best known American companies, is in no small part due to our highly educated, flexible and enthusiastic young workforce. Spending on education in Ireland has increased by 40% in the last three years and now accounts for more than a quarter of all Government spending. This investment is supporting one million people, out of a population of 3.7 million, in full-time education in Ireland today. The results, I think, speak for themselves.
Ireland’s unique demographic profile is another important factor behind our economic success. I have already mentioned our relatively young population and net immigration as elements which have underpinned strong employment and economic growth. Another vital factor has been the vastly increased participation by women in our workforce. For too many generations, the genius of Irish women was largely confined to home and family. Over the past few decades, these barriers have been largely eliminated, and women have been quick to seize opportunities in all areas of public and business life. Irish society has in turn been rewarded by an explosion of new talent and energy which has helped fuel Ireland’s economic success and social vibrancy.
A third and equally important factor in Ireland’s economic success has been our membership of the European Union. Ireland’s membership of the Union since 1973 has been fundamental to our economic development. It has helped us develop our economy and infrastructure and diversify our economic and trade relations. Through our membership, Ireland developed new markets and became an attractive location for the foreign direct investment which has been an essential ingredient in the development of our economy and now, for example, almost a quarter of all US investment in Europe goes to Ireland. That is quite remarkable for a country which has only 1% of the EU population.
Ireland, in a single generation, has become a trading nation and, in per capita terms, is now the third largest exporter in the world. While agriculture remains of key importance, more than 90% of what we now export is non-agricultural produce. Ireland is now, believe it or not, the world’s largest exporter of computer software, having overtaken the United States.
While many of our achievements would have been impossible if it were not for our membership of the European Union, our performance is also extraordinary in comparison with that of our European partners. For example, our growth rate in 2000 was over three times the average of the other EU member states. Setting Ireland’s economic performance against that of the other member states of the EU brings a new perspective on how well the Irish economy has done in recent years.
All of these factors have fed into our success, but would have counted for little if they had not been underpinned by macroeconomic stability and structural reforms. Taking the often difficult budgetary decisions which this required was greatly helped by the system of social partnership developed by successive governments. Social partnership brought together government, employers, unions and voluntary groups to agree salary boundaries, taxation and social priorities, and to help share out fairly the benefits of growing prosperity.
Ireland today is a very different place from what it was ten or twenty years ago. Irish people have embraced the “New Economy” with enthusiasm. We are now recognised as an international high-tech centre, a world class supplier of products, components and services. Irish companies are now winning business in sectors such as localisation, telecommunications and financial services - this would have been inconceivable a generation ago.
This transformation has been brought about in Irish society while retaining what is best in our cultural heritage and tradition - our music, our language, our native sports have never been more full of vitality than they are today, and we have one of the youngest, most innovative and imaginative populations in Europe.
The changes in our economy over the last decade have, of course, had a huge impact on Irish society. Increased immigration, for example, means that Irish society is becoming ever more diverse as those from different cultures come to Ireland seeking to build new lives. They bring with them their own unique patrimonies, whether of language, history, religion, music. These new sounds, new voices will in turn bring new talent and energy to our country, the well from which we draw will be deeper.
Economic success has encouraged a new sense of optimism and confidence in the people of Ireland, in our business community, in our entrepreneurs, in our writers and artists and, most especially, in our young people. In short, our economic transformation has changed the way Irish people see ourselves, and how we engage with the rest of the world.
There is an ever growing, and well founded, belief that we are a nation in control of our future – that it is within our power and indeed within our reach to ensure a safe, peaceful and prosperous future for all the people of Ireland. We know from all our experience that you wish us well in that not, just because you are an important investor in our economy, an important economic partner but because you have gone that other journey with us, as a friend and because you, like us know that in many ways the most exciting part of the journey is yet to come.
Thank you.