REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE WEST TALLAGHT RESOURCE CENTRE’S THREE YEAR WORK
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF THE WEST TALLAGHT RESOURCE CENTRE’S THREE YEAR WORK PLAN
Is cúis mhór áthais dom bheith anseo libh inniu ag an Ócaid specialta seo. Tá mé buíoch díbh as an chuireadh agus an fáilte fíorchaoin a chur sibh romham.
I am delighted to join you today at the official launch of the Centre’s Three Year Work Plan I would like to thank Joseph Mc Crory for the kind invitation.
One of the great success stories in Ireland over the past decade has been the emergence of a vibrant and energetic community sector. In almost every parish, every village, in the country, local people have got together, looked at the needs of their area and set about finding solutions to benefit all the people in their community. And those efforts have paid off a hundred-fold, not just in the improvement in services and facilities, but in the way in which the local community grows in confidence and self belief, knowing they can play a real part in the development of their community.
The success of the West Tallaght Resource Centre tells its own powerful story - a story of what a community can achieve if they pull together and use their talents and energies to tackle issues relevant to the people of their own area. You prove, day in, day out, that even in this age of growing materialism and scepticism, people do care, and keep on caring. They care about what happens in their communities and to their communities; they set about the challenge of finding new approaches, fresh ideas to give a better quality of life to every member of their community.
This centre, working in partnership with other community groups and statutory bodies, is sowing the seeds from which a better future can grow. You are providing a respected and confident voice which keeps challenging all of us to work for full social inclusion not because it is a nice thing but because it is essential, because without it we waste so much time and talent, we do not realise our full potential as individuals or as community.
For many people this is a good time to be alive in Ireland, so good that we need to be reminded that not everyone has it so good yet. Those of you involved in the West Tallaght Resource Centre know that this is no time for complacency but a time to galvanise the formidable resources available to this generation to bring about a society of real equality of opportunity.
You have worked hard over the past fourteen years acting as a catalyst for community development and initiating and supporting many community groups and activities in your area. You have been the first port of call for individuals and organisations in West Tallaght to access information and assistance on a wide range of issues from education and employment to drug abuse and domestic violence.
And now you have reflected deeply on those years of effort, years of achievement when you grew in wisdom and experience. You have taken stock, distilled that wisdom and with the publication of this most comprehensive Three Year Plan, you have charted a fresh course for the future.
The next few years will be challenging, and with this plan you have clearly demonstrated you are confident that you can and will face the challenges head on to create a community where everyone will be able to access support and opportunities to enable them to play their full role as valued members of the community.
I would like to congratulate the management committee and everyone associated with the West Tallaght Resource Centre for your commitment to community development and to wish you every success in implementing this blueprint for the future progress of the Centre.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.