Remarks at Haulbowline Naval Base
Co. Cork, 11th April 2012
Dia dhaoibh a chairde,
Tá an-áthas orm a bheith anseo libh ar lá atá chomh stairiúil don phobal muirí.
Thank you Commodore Mellett for your kind invitation which has afforded me the opportunity to visit the base on what is an historic day for the maritime community. Today marks the 100th anniversary of when the Titanic weighed anchor for the last time in the port of Cobh and collected those final passengers before continuing on its fateful journey. It is therefore natural that the town’s people of Cobh would choose to commemorate the tragedy with such poignancy and splendid effort. In this regard, it follows that our Naval Service would participate in these ceremonies with such respect and usual execution at the highest professional level.
Today represents my first official visit to a military installation and where more appropriate to do so than here at the Naval Base, Haulbowline where generations of seamen and women and civilian support staff have served our country and the Defence Forces so well. Thank you all for your welcome to me today - I am told we have Naval Service members from Headquarters, Operations, Support and the Naval College here as well as the civilian staff who assist the Naval Service including the Naval Dockyard.
Inniu mo chéad chuairt oifigiúil ar shuiteáil mhíleata agus níl áit ar bith níos fearr chun é seo a dhéanamh ná anseo ag an Bhunáit Chabhlaigh, An Dún, áit a d’fhóin na mílte mairnéalach idir fhir agus mhná mar aon le foireann tacaíochta sibhialtach go dílis agus go dúthracht ar riachtanais na tíre seo agus Óglaigh na hÉireann. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir as fáilte a chur romham inniu – tugtar le fios dom go bhfuil baill den Seirbhís Chabhlaigh ón gCeanncheathrú, Oibríochtaí, Tacaíochta agus Coláiste an Chabhlaigh anseo inniu mar aon leis an bhfoireann shibhialtach a thugann cúnamh don Seirbhís Chabhlaigh agus don Longlann Chabhlaigh.
Haulbowline Island has an interesting naval history dating back through the centuries. That history tells of the fortification of this island at the very heart of Cork Harbour by the British army more than four centuries ago (in 1602), and of subsequently becoming a base for the Royal Navy in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Although we gained our independence and the Free State emerged in 1922, Britain’s retention of Irish ports, known as the Treaty Ports of Cork, Berehaven and Lough Swilly as well as control of Irish waters meant that it was only in 1938 that these ports and control of our waters were handed back to the Irish State.
It followed in the cause of guaranteeing Ireland’s neutrality during World War II, that the naval base here in Haulbowline was reactivated and operated as the Marine and Coast-watching Service, and directly after the war (1946) became a permanent element of our Defence Forces from which our Naval Service has developed and expanded and become increasingly more professional and effective through the years.
The naval service of today represents what is best in public service. Your work demands commitment; it demands that you work in the harshest environments; that you spend long periods at sea away from your families. Yours is public service of great professionalism, dedication and value to our nation.
We have become accustomed to the grey hulls of our naval service vessels appearing in news reports offering help and hope in rescue efforts at sea, of which there have been regrettably all too many in recent years. Only a few short weeks ago the Naval Service supported the Irish Coast Guard in the search and recovery of the crew of the ‘Tit Bonhomme’ in Glandore Bay and serves to remind us of how dangerous our waters are and how important your role is in support of the maritime community.
I will meet with volunteers and members of the community when I travel to Union Hall in a few days time to thank them and the statutory agencies for their efforts which through painstaking effort eventually recovered the bodies of five crewmen. I would like to take the opportunity today to commend the Naval personnel involved, the captains and crews from the L.E. Niamh and the L.E. Orla, which acted as on scene coordinating vessels during the course of the recovery operation, and the Naval Service Dive Teams who dedicated many long hours to the search.
This was a heartbreaking ordeal for all those connected with the loss of those five fishermen but your tireless efforts to bring closure, to bring certainty to the families was greatly appreciated by them as it was by the rest of us who looked on.
In the past few years and in response to our changed economic fortunes, there has been a welcome, necessary and inevitable re-evaluation of what it was within our society that did not serve us well in our recent past and the powerful figures of authority who perpetrated wrongs against our country, our people, whether directly or indirectly. I don’t need to rehearse those arguments to this audience. What I do want to stress to you is that we often look to others for inspiration and find it within ourselves. When we look to our Defence Forces in all it achieves for Ireland in terms of reputational value, in its peace-keeping and humanitarian efforts; its search and rescue efforts, its air-ambulance efforts; its fishery protection efforts, its aid to the civil power efforts and so much more, we find inspiration. Our Defence Forces are part of a tradition that epitomises what it is from our past that we should preserve for the future, the best of our Irishness.
Mar fhreagra ar an athrú atá tagtha ar chúinsí eacnamaíochta na tíre le blianta anuas cuirtear fáilte roimh athmheasúnú riachtanach agus dosheachanta ar ár sochaí. Déantar plé ar an bhfáth nár fhreastail an tsochaí seo de réir mar is ceart agus ar na daoine cumhachtacha údarásacha a rinne éagóir díreach nó indíreach ar ár dtír agus ar mhuintir na tíre. Ní gá dom na hargóintí sin a chur in iúl don lucht féachana seo. Is mian liom a chur in iúl daoibh áfach go dtéann muid ar thóir spreagadh ó dhaoine eile go minic ach is ionainn féin a fhaigheann muid é. Tugtar spreagadh dúinn nuair a fhéachann muid ar Óglaigh na hÉireann agus an méid a bhaintear amach ar son na hÉireann ó thaobh clú na tíre de, ó thaobh a n-iarrachtaí síochánaíochta agus daonnúla de; a n-iarrachtaí cuardaigh agus tarrthála; a n-iarrachtaí aerárthaigh othair; a n-iarrachtaí maidir le cosaint iascaigh, an cúnamh a chuireann siad ar fáil d’iarrachtaí maidir le cumhacht sibhialta agus neart rudaí eile. Is cuid de traidisiún láidir den am atá thart Óglaigh na hÉireann agus ní mór dúinn an ghné is fearr den fhéiniúlacht Éireannach seo a chaomhnú don todhchaí.
In the apportionment of blame for collapsing economic fortunes, some commentators have sought to lay significant blame at the door of our public service. This is based often on populist stereotyping. It constitutes a lashing out at those who serve and are most visible.
I don’t believe that there are any informed commentators who would argue that public service reform is unnecessary. I don’t believe that with the depth, breadth and complexity of public service that there will ever be a time when ongoing public service reform isn’t needed. That is the natural order of things. As society changes, as the needs of the citizens that make up that society change so must the efforts of our public service align with those changing needs.
What is totally counter-productive at a time of great pressure on our public service to align effort with radically changed or new imperatives is to serve to unreasonably criticise, demoralise, de-motivate, demonise the very agents of change on whom we depend to deliver new behaviours, new, better outcomes for the citizen.
After decades in public office, I value committed public service and public servants such as those who make up our Naval Service as I do those who in so many settings seek to serve well our citizens. That thankfully remains the fundamental purpose of our public service, evidenced here as so many places elsewhere. For it to remain so it is I believe important for public servants to repeatedly ask themselves in the performance of their functions ‘is what I do delivering excellence in the public interest?’, and in asking that question to feel the assurance that their commitment is appreciated.
I am aware that the Naval Service has delivered efficiencies while continuing to carry out its many demanding roles. Our Defence Forces have led the way in recent years, providing a model for public sector reform by enabling and achieving considerable modernisation. For the Naval Service, the accomplishments in this area have been converted into significant investment and have provided for the ship replacement programme which is currently underway and which will, I understand, assist you greatly in your operations in seas known to be the roughest in the world.
One of the great successes of our Naval Service has been as member of the Joint Task Force, in preventing the arrival of drugs on our shores. With constant vigilance and surveillance they deter those considering Ireland as an access point for their evil illegal smuggling.
Importantly too, our Naval Service in patrolling our waters to deter illegal fishing helps to restore sustainability to our key stocks for generations of Irish fishermen to come, ensuring that in Irish waters everybody adheres to our national laws and international legal commitments.
I would also like to mention the Naval Service’s visionary and innovative role in the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC). This collaboration between the Naval Service, Cork Institute of Technology and University College Cork brings together expertise in the fields of energy engineering, maritime operations and technology and ecosystem governance. The aim of this initiative is to release the potential of the maritime sector into the Irish economy through the promotion of a research and development location here in Cork. Sharing ideas and expertise gives us a greater capacity to solve problems and to become leaders in our niche area. IMERC is a fine example of such an enterprise where three institutions have formed an alliance to create opportunities in the maritime and energy sectors.
The Naval Service is, in its acting, a stimulant to the maritime economy and job creation. For an Irish company to be able to advertise to potential buyers or investors, that their product has been tested by the Irish Naval Service is potentially of huge commercial benefit to that company and to the State.
I know that some of you have served with distinction as peacekeepers abroad in the past and more of you will follow in these footsteps in the future.
Our Defence Forces in resuming their mission in Lebanon earns for them yet further respect and admiration both within the peace-keeping community itself and amongst the Lebanese people, for the vitally important contribution they have made to providing stability and security, through serving more than 30,000 tours of duty there. They are respected for their professionalism as they are too for their humanity. Those of you who have served in Lebanon will know for example about Tibnin Orphanage and the very practical support our troops provide to the children including teaching English in the classroom.
You are also recognised for the important diplomatic and trade role you play. The presence of an Irish Naval ship in a foreign port offers support to Irish embassy staff in the countries visited and provides potential to those charged with selling Ireland abroad. Such visits also help to create and maintain our links with our Irish abroad and generates much goodwill in terms of humanitarian support.
This communicates an important message about us to other countries – that we value our connections to Irish communities abroad and that we believe in our capacity to support others who are struggling because of wars or natural disasters.
Cobh is of course the home port of our Naval Service. Your ships sail from this port throughout our maritime jurisdiction and indeed to many foreign destinations and you have done so with honour and distinction in support of Irish interests. However, no matter where the ships and sailors of the Naval Service have travelled, I am sure that there is a special place in each of your hearts for your home port of Cobh, the 2nd largest natural harbour in the world (after Sydney).
I renew my thanks to you all for the warm welcome to me today. I am enjoying my visit to the Naval Service Headquarters very much. I wish you well in all that you do on behalf of your country and I salute you for carrying on the proud and distinguished tradition of our Naval Service.
Is iontach an obair atá ar siúl agaibh anseo ar son ár Tír. Gurb fada buan sibh agus go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.