REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT AN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS LUNCHEON
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT AN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS LUNCHEON MONDAY, 26 APRIL 2010
Dia dhíbh a chairde, I am delighted to be back at the Institute of International and European Affairs this time under the leadership of its new Director General Dáithí O Ceallaigh. Dáithí, is an old friend, an outstanding Irish diplomat and ambassador who has served all over the world and whose contribution as Ambassador in London during a pivotal time in the Peace Process was utterly crucial to the creation, development and consolidation of peace in Northern Ireland and in recalibrating Irish British relationships to the level of collegiality we now enjoy. Brendan Halligan and his colleagues at the Institute chose well in their new DG for his commitment to Ireland and to Europe is underpinned by a rare level of skill, wisdom and insight into a wide range of issues, gathered and distilled over a very distinguished career.
In the relatively short time since I last talked at the Institute, Ireland has gone from being the economic toast of Europe to being excoriated for a champagne lifestyle that was based on unsustainable levels of borrowing. It’s a humbler and more chastened Ireland we meet in today for emergence as a globalised economy exposed us to the damaging consequences of the global recession and the blinkered hubris of our banking and property development sectors inflicted colossal damage on what was and still is a young, emerging economy. The opening chapters of 21st century Ireland have been a roller coaster. First there was the huge economic and social uplift propelled by the best educated generation ever on this island and then there was the rapid slide into levels of debt that have sobering consequences for the next generation. We have come face to face with confidence and crises of confidence. We face the reality that there is a huge onus on us, ourselves, to dig our way out of this crisis and that we are fortunate to be members of a Union which is supporting and guiding us through these tough times.
The Single Market proved itself to be a major advantage to Ireland, as we successfully establish ourselves, with much success, as a nation with a strong exporting pedigree. It is encouraging that despite the shocks in the external international environment and the self-inflicted domestic wounds, our exports have held up reasonably well and are beginning to start climbing again as we make inroads in regaining lost competiveness.
They say that a good team does not become a bad team over night and Team Ireland had and still has a panel of strengths sufficient to reposition us as a smart, innovative, ethically sustainable and competitive economy. Not least of those strengths is our capacity for solidarity, for pulling together across the diverse constituencies of interest, when to do so is the most effective way of protecting our collective national interest. We are right in the middle of just such a time and so far external expert commentators seem impressed at the realism and sacrifice being brought to bear on our parlous economic situation. The repositioning of Ireland if it is to be successful will be largely down to our own efforts and our relationship with the EU and its individual Member States is absolutely critical to that repositioning.
After a protracted and energy-sapping debate on institutional reform within the Union, the post-Lisbon era has to be characterised by the focussing of energies on ensuring that the new EU institutional architecture makes a manifest and positive impact on the lives of Europe’s citizens. That means bringing financial stability and jobs, for it is the absence of these things or the threat to them that provokes so much worry in Europe’s homes. Ireland stands to benefit considerably from embedded financial stability and from a dynamic but sensible and sound pro-business culture. Ensuring a proper balance between effective regulation and credible entrepreneurialism throughout Europe and indeed further afield will be key to our future prosperity. So Ireland has to keep doing what it has always done very well and that is to maintain a high level of engagement with our European partners, not just in Brussels but also bilaterally with our European colleagues and those who aspire to membership so that we are not known simply through the voices of external spectators and pundits but known for who we truly are. To be defined solely by our current economic problems would be a massive injustice to a country which has a civic society and community sector second to none and which has a capacity for transcending adversity by sheer hard slog, also second to none.
For all our current preoccupations we still have an abiding responsibility to prepare for the future and for a better future. Our position at the heart of the EU is an important asset, so too is the massive, well-disposed international network we have inherited thanks to the efforts of our extensive global Irish Family. The Farmleigh Forum last September demonstrated the depth and breadth of that resource and the newly constituted Global Irish Network creates an opportunity to harness and harvest that resource in much more targeted and strategic ways than we have done in the past. Ireland’s new migrant population, though growing much less rapidly than in the early post-Enlargement years, has brought the enrichment of cultural diversity and the momentum of individual ambition. Those who leave and speak well of us are important goodwill ambassadors for Ireland back in their native countries. Those who stay widen our human resource base economically, culturally and civically and they are a vital part of our future recovery.
It is a complex time and world we inhabit. Consensus is hard to find and so too is good sensible, well-informed and reasoned debate. Tabloidism, anecdote and stereotype fuelling heady moral panics are an inevitable feature of the freedom of speech we enjoy but it is essential to all functioning democracies that there is also space for measured and educated debate which is why the IIEA occupies such an important role in Irish life. You keep us plugged into the major EU and international issues which strategically affect Ireland, even if their direct impact on us may not be immediately apparent. You are part of the checks and balances we need to understand and interrogate our times so that we can make good, sensible choices, in the present and for the future; choices that are good for Ireland and good for Europe. You are unlikely to face redundancy any day soon for the catalogue of issues which are on the agenda is extensive, from enlargement to the environment, from migration to monetary stability, from third world poverty to global prosperity, from war to peace.
Europe’s context has changed beyond all recognition from the chaos of competing empires which soaked the first half of the twentieth century with the wasted blood of its youth. From the advent of the Treaty of Rome, Europe has known a level of peace and stability that defeated all previous generations. This Union is good at the kind of miracles that come from vision and determination. Likewise in Ireland this generation has created a peace which has altered beyond recognition the political and social context of the coming times and which is only in the opening chapters of its potential. Though human beings the world over are clearly capable of mega mistakes we are also clearly capable of clearing up our messes and making them better than good.
This Institute not only helps us to believe that but it tells us that there is a moral imperative to actively involve ourselves in public understanding of the complex issues we need to address to make our world right. These are noble purposes and I wish the Institute continued success in pursuing and discharging them. Go n-éirí an t-ádh libh! Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.