REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT’S DINNER BURLINGTON HOTEL
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE INSTITUTE OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT’S DINNER BURLINGTON HOTEL, DUBLIN
I am delighted to meet you all again, one year on from the Dinner I had the pleasure of attending in Hillsborough last April.
On that occasion, we were entering a new and promising phase in the history of this island. It is a phase that is still unfolding, slowly, tentatively and painfully. Yet this year has proved that, while each step seems in itself disappointingly small, measured over a period of time we have come a long way. For peace-makers long time-lines hold no fears, nor are they put off by the bogholes, wrong turns and obstacles. They learn from the journey and stay with it come what may, working often silently and unnoticed as they painstakingly change the landscape of our lives.
One of the most positive indicators of the type of progress that is being made quietly behind the scenes, without fuss, is the increasing level of co-operation and partnership between businesses North and South. Over the past year I have had the pleasure to personally meet many of the key movers behind those emerging links. People in business, in the statutory sector – men and women who do not expect applause, who are doing what makes sound business sense and yet, who are helping to seedbed a shared and more prosperous future for all the people on this island.
We have much ground to make up. There is clear evidence that the years of conflict have been a major barrier to the development of what should have been a dynamic and sustained commercial interaction between North and South. Of all the national frontiers in the European Union, the lowest proportionate level of cross-border trade and trade growth has been between the two economies on this island.
Ireland has one of the fastest-growing export-led economies in the world, but the growth of exports to Northern Ireland has lagged far behind overall export growth. Similarly, sales from Northern Ireland companies into the South have been increasing at a much slower pace than the overall growth of imports into the South.
There is now tremendous scope for stepping up North/South trade. If the opportunities springing from the Peace Agreement are seized by companies North and South, both economies will be transformed, creating thousands of additional jobs throughout Ireland.
In the end, however, it is the commitment and hard work of individual companies that creates all-Ireland business partnerships. I know that many of you here present are among those who have championed and pioneered cross border business contracts and co-operation in recent years, at a time when such action required courage and foresight. I would like to pay tribute to you – we need more pioneers like you if we are to build the future prosperity which now lies within our grasp and which our peoples, North and South, so richly deserve.
It is perhaps true to say that, along with politicians and lawyers, business people rarely get the credit they are entitled to. Indeed, it was Adam Smith, generally viewed as one of the great proponents of free trade who wrote that:
‘People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public or in some contrivance to raise prices’
With friends like that, as they say, who needs enemies? Yet it is your risk-taking, your sense of entrepreneurship, your willingness to put your neck on the line that has created the prosperity and employment that we in Ireland now enjoy. You are key to that continued success, which depends so much on intangibles such as trust and confidence, not only by your shareholders and client groups, but by society as a whole.
It is therefore important that your role and your responsibilities are clearly understood by society. With over 150,000 companies in this State, and more than 200,000 people actively involved in directing and managing businesses, our collective welfare is dependent not only on your energy, drive and imagination, but also on your sound and ethical management of companies.
We are fortunate in Ireland that with very rare exceptions – which are inevitably the ones which capture media interest - our business directors and leaders exercise their legal, social and ethical responsibilities to the highest standard. Indeed many of you take that extra step above and beyond duty, in your treatment of employees and in how you interact with the wider community. Many businesses have led the way in sponsoring social, cultural and sporting events. Others have made great strides in protecting the environment. Many of you have given selflessly of your time and energy in helping to tackle disadvantage, in promoting education for those for whom it is a dream rather than an expectation, and in giving people who for years have been excluded from our success story, a chance to prove what they are capable of. You prove in all of these ways that the famous so-called ‘bottom line’ on the profit and loss account is a discipline not a dictator which obliterates all form of conscience, that businesses are run by human beings who live in the real world, know its hurts and its hopes and care about its civilized development. Bringing conscience into the heart of business is the best antidote to cynicism.
Efforts of this kind are not simply to be commended as acts of decency. They make good business sense, creating a climate in which enterprise promotes social inclusion and social stability. These are farsighted and visionary approaches to helping sustain the social and economic welfare of our country. Just as our current success stems in no small way from a pride and confidence in our culture, from a sense that we can compete and succeed in any sphere, so too is that success dependent on utilising the skills and talents of all our people. That can only happen through a sense of communal responsibility and partnership, between business, education and training bodies, the statutory and voluntary sectors. I warmly congratulate all of you who have been involved in these activities. You knew better than most how important it is to promote independence and reduce dependency by ensuring that we are unlocking all the talents and abilities inside our people, male and female.
It is that type of partnership, of sharing skills, information and expertise, that has also been at the heart of this Institute’s success. It has proved to be an invaluable resource in enabling its members to meet the challenges and opportunities of this fast-changing world.
That proactive approach is all the more vital as we near that much-talked-of New Millennium. They say that ‘Unity is strength’. I have no doubt that in the years ahead that unity and partnership which the Institute exemplifies, will be more important than ever.
I would like to congratulate everyone involved in the Institute on its success to date, most of all your President, Dr Patrick Galvin, and Niall Moloney, your Executive Director who unfortunately is in hospital at present. I would like to join all of you in wishing him a speedy recovery.
I wish you all continued success in the future.