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REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY CONFERENCE

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY CONFERENCE IN TULLAMORE OFFALY SATURDAY 26 SEPTEMBER

As patron of NALA, it gives me particular joy to be here and to take some time to see the work that you are doing in the various schemes and programme which you operate throughout the country – to help those who have been caught in the trap of illiteracy and who need the caring and understanding that you can give them in their efforts to overcome the difficulty. As you probably know, I am patron of a number of organisations who do excellent work for different groups. I have at this stage met most of those organisations either in the Áras or at functions I have attended. I have to say that my initial meeting with the NALA last March – with Michael Twomey and Inez Bailey was one of the most interesting encounters that I have had since becoming President.

At that meeting, Inez and Michael introduced me to Esther Buckley – who is with us today – and who told me how she had hidden her secret for years, and how she was finally forced into revealing her literacy problem when her son wrote to her from Germany and she found that she was unable to respond. The thing that struck me while listening to her moving story was that in her case, illiteracy had been in one sense a prison – keeping her confined to a world of visual and aural experience – and in another sense an impenetrable wall keeping her out of a whole world of experience and wonder that can be accessed through reading.

It also struck me that there must be many people who are in that predicament – who cannot hope to get a full exposition of the issues and topics of the day that are addressed so comprehensively in the written media – before you take into account the miles and miles of bookshelves in shops and libraries bulging with fact and fiction - and offering a whole world of entertainment, enlightenment and mental stimulation.

I know too that it can be so easy for people to find themselves with a literacy problem – through family circumstances – through economic necessity – or perhaps through school experiences. But it is important to remember that it is never too late to redress the situation and to start reaping the rewards that literacy education can bring. In the work that the National Adult Literacy Agency are doing – in support and promotion – in developing policy and ideas – in producing and distributing literacy material – in developing tutor-training – and in providing a forum for discussion and cooperation between literacy workers throughout the country – you are providing a vital life line to those who have been caught in that trap – and who have been excluded because of their predicament.

Through your many literacy schemes – funded by the VEC’s – and which cater for 5,000 clients – you have succeeded in bringing a sharper focus onto the scale of the problem that exists in this country today. I am aware that a recent International Literacy survey showed the problem in Ireland to be much worse than had been previously estimated. The seriousness of the problem has been recognised by the Government who last year appointed a Minister of State for Adult Education - and have substantially increased the Adult Education budget.

On this International Literacy Day I would like to pay tribute to the magnificent work that you have been doing – as individual students, as tutors and organisers working with the VEC’s the libraries, the trades unions and the various educational institutions. In my coming here this morning, I was to give you the recognition and affirmation that you rightly deserve – and to wish you continued success in your very valuable work. As this country basks in our recent economic successes, it is more important now than ever before that we must ensure that nobody is left behind – either through educational disadvantage or social circumstance. The real wealth of our country is our people. Exclusion ultimately means that we are all impoverished.

I hope that you have an enjoyable and fruitful conference here in Tullamore – and that you can continue in your invaluable work of liberation and empowerment through literacy skills teaching and promotion.

ENDS