REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ANNUAL DUBLIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DINNER
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE ANNUAL DUBLIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DINNER TUESDAY, 13 FEBRUARY, 2001
Is breá liom bheith anseo i bhur measc ag an ócaid seo, agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl dibh as an chuireadh agus as fáilte fíorchaoin.
I would like to thank Alfie Kane, President of Dublin Chamber of Commerce for the kind invitation to join you this evening at the Chamber’s Annual Dinner.
Twenty-first century Ireland generates statistics and images which contrast markedly with the Ireland of the past, even indeed the Ireland of the recent past. Burgeoning growth has replaced economic stagnation. Prosperity and investment have transformed living standards, reversed the centuries old haemorrhage of emigration and brought employment levels and opportunities to a new high. Today our population is growing for the first time in generations and we are seen throughout the world as a modern sophisticated democracy with a vibrant cultural heritage and an admirable success story to tell. We who are privileged to belong to this high-achieving generation, the first to truly witness the power of our own potential, know that what has been unlocked in this past decade is only a foretaste of what is yet to come, what we can look forward to when the full potential of all our people, the full potential of the new partnerships that peace on this island offers, draws each to the centre and leaves the margins empty. Other generations have imagined these times and hoped for them. We are living through them and dealing with the formidable responsibilities they lay upon us.
That we have these times with their unique record of achievement and huge promise is in no small way due to the imagination and dedicated work of our commercial, industrial, educational and political sectors. Working together they made Ireland the focus of a high level of foreign investment and a confident indigenous sector. Someone remarked to me lately that this was a very “lucky” time for Ireland. I responded with the old adage, “You make your luck”.
Great thanks is due to people like yourselves, the risk takers, the builders of business, the people who made this luck out of your vision, bold imagination, faith in this country and faith in your own determination to succeed. That shared conviction, that there is nothing we cannot achieve if we set our minds to it, has jolted Ireland giving it a huge surge of can-do energy.
We face a transformed and still transforming landscape. We are right to take pride in and hope from our journey this far. Now our challenge is to make sure no potential is wasted and that we find the most effective pathways to unlocking real opportunity and participation in prosperity to all our people. This is a part of the journey I know you are deeply committed to.
Last summer I had the great pleasure of welcoming students and members of the business community from the Dublin Schools Business Partnership Mentoring Programme to Áras an Uachtaráin. The Programme is designed to establish links between the business community and young people in inner city schools. Business men and women provided advice and practical assistance to these young people at a crucial time in their lives, helping them to develop their talents and skills, widening the range of choices their futures hold. I want to commend members of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce who dedicated so much time and energy to making the Programme a success. That investment in the lives of our young people, makes it clear that you believe in shared responsibility for the future, that partnership, planning, transfer of wisdom and of skills to the widest possible reach of our communities is in all our best interests.
Every confident, empowered individual adds hugely to our civic equity, our civic strength. At the heart of that empowerment is education. Living as we are not just in ‘the knowledge economy’ but hoping to position ourselves in the van of that global phenomenon, we have a crucial vested interest in making sure our people, especially though not exclusively our young people, have the mix of knowledge, skills and confidence to be comfortable participants and innovators in this new information age.
Dublin is the now the capital of the most rapidly expanding economy in Europe. The good things brought by that rapid expansion bring many new pressures in their wake, nowhere more so than here in this city where the relentless march of urbanisation bears heavily on the work of governments, planners and local authorities and on the lives of citizens.
Cities have their own magic and magnetism. People gravitate to them in large numbers and as they do the city changes. That growth in city life comes at a price. Many of us inherited our cities. They grew up in places chosen centuries ago by our ancestors. They are huge repositories of the history of our people and their changing times. Each generation leaves some sign of its own story and we in this generation should not underestimate our own capacity along with its concomitant responsibility to shape and reshape the urban environment in a way which celebrates our past, lets us enjoy our present and leaves to the future a legacy of custodianship, to be proud of.
I know how much these issues mean to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, for you play a particularly active role in the debate on Dublin’s future, focusing your public policy on the development of the city’s infrastructure, on the strategic management of the city and on developing and encouraging investment in Dublin. Your faith in Dublin and love of this city is well-placed and indeed has been well rewarded as our capital city attracts more and more visitors every year.
Among the visitors with us this evening is Tom Donohue President of the US Chambers of Commerce. Ireland enjoys a truly fascinating and rewarding relationship with the United States and it is good to be able to add a word of welcome and gratitude to my neighbour in the Park, U.S. Ambassador Michael Sullivan. The ties that bind us to the United States are deeply valued. In this generation they have been of critical importance in the pursuit of peace in Northern Ireland and the pursuit of prosperity through investment on the island as a whole. I know that we look forward to further developing the already strong links of business and friendship between Ireland and the US during President Bush’s administration.
It is good to see the British Ambassador Sir Ivor Roberts here also. Relations between these two islands have also been turned around in recent years. In a climate of respectful partnership both the Irish and British governments have worked and are working with relentless commitment to secure the full flowering of the Good Friday Agreement.
Soon we hope Ireland, can look forward to the huge reservoir of mutually beneficial, energy and creativity which increasingly harmonious relations between North and South will release. If ever there was an exciting time to be alive and in Ireland then this is probably it. No generation has been given so much. No generation has had so much to live up to.
The pace is fast, furious, even frantic so a night off among friends is definitely deserved. Through your membership of the chamber, through the powerful network you have created between you, a network enhanced and consolidated by tonight’s human and social side, you are ensuring that the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, is strong, united and confident and ready for the rest of the journey ahead.