REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR ENTERPRISE IRELAND ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT A RECEPTION FOR ENTERPRISE IRELAND ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN THURSDAY, 9TH NOVEMBER, 2006
Cuireann sé áthas mór orm agus ar m’fhear céile, Máirtin, fáilte a chur romhaibh go léir chuig Áras an Uachtaráin inniu.
Chairman Pat Molloy, CEO Frank Ryan, members of the Board and EI staff, Martin and I are delighted to welcome each one of you to Áras an Uachtaráin and to have this opportunity on behalf of everyone in Ireland, for whom you all work so hard, to recognise today the immense contribution that everyone at Enterprise Ireland has made to Ireland’s phenomenal economic success story.
I have been privileged to see many of you at work around the world explaining Ireland, introducing Ireland, selling Ireland, connecting Ireland to the opportunities that abound in the world in theory but that have to be created in reality. Ireland’s success was long hoped and prayed for, but you planned for it and you helped deliver it. You brought vision, energy, commitment, dedication and determination. You turned work duty into patriotic duty and patriotism into pride at our success.
Everywhere you look around our country, you can see the evidence of your success – the broad spectrum of overseas companies now embedded in Ireland, the burgeoning indigenous sector which has grown up around them and which markets around the globe.
Ireland was side‑stepped by industrialisation in the 19th century. It was beaten down by the slumps and ignored by the booms of most of the 20th century. There was a lesson to be learnt – we could stay mired in underachievement or we could start to plan our attack on the second industrial revolution. And with your help we certainly captured that one.
In February this year I was in Saudi Arabia and Jordan and later in July I travelled to Austria. Everywhere I have been this year and in previous years your teams from home and abroad organised highly professional business engagements that resulted in substantial business opportunities for Irish companies. Time and again in the wake of those meetings I hear of the colossal follow-up work they have entailed and the new business they have generated thanks to your work.
You are the doers who have made Ireland a modern and exhilarating place to live. Our young, fast-growing and increasingly cosmopolitan population faces a landscape of opportunities and challenges which we couldn’t have even begun to imagine even a decade ago. Their country is self‑assured as never before, successful as never before. So many other countries see us as their inspiration, as the place they most want to emulate. We have faith in our future. You can take considerable credit for these remarkable times and we are grateful to have a world-class enterprise development agency and world‑class, first-class staff who will keep on driving our ambition to fully reveal our island’s widest and deepest potential.
You didn’t do any of it for thanks but you deserve our thanks, and so today I hope this reception lets you know, even in this small way, just how much we value and respect you and your work, and just how much we know we owe you.
I hope that you will enjoy yourselves this afternoon.
I would like to thank Naomi O’Connell for her wonderful singing, and Celine Kelly who accompanied her so beautifully on the piano.
I would also like to thank our friends from Civil Defence and the staff here at the Áras who have worked hard to make today enjoyable for everyone.
This afternoon is about enjoying the company of others, meeting some new friends and generally relaxing for a few hours in what I hope you will agree are pleasant surroundings. So today is your day and we hope that you will enjoy this afternoon and return home with happy memories of your visit to the Áras.
Mo bhuíochas libh arís as bhur gcuid oibre. Go maire sibh.