REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON A VISIT TO BONNYBROOK YOUTHREACH CENTRE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE ON A VISIT TO BONNYBROOK YOUTHREACH CENTRE TO ATTEND THEIR 10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
Tá lucháir mhór orm bheith anseo libh inniu, agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a chur in iúl díbh don fáilte a raibh fíor, fairsing agus flaithiúil.
I am delighted to join you today to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Bonnybrook Youthreach Centre and to experience at first hand the wide range of activities that take place in the Centre. I would like to thank Patricia Gaffney and the City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee for the invitation to join with you in marking this important and hard-earned milestone and I am delighted with the warm welcome I have been given here today.
One of the main ingredients in Ireland’s phenomenal success over recent years has been the high skills level of our people, especially our young people. Employers are impressed by them and people invest in Ireland because they know we have a terrific educated young workforce. But skills need to be built and practised and developed. That takes work. Work takes effort and commitment, day in and day out. It brings its rewards - access to jobs, control over your life, fulfilment through doing things you enjoy. Youthreach centres such as this provide the means through which people can acquire those crucial skills and in turn access their very own potential. This, in turn enables us to tap into a huge reserve of talent that otherwise would lie dormant and unused.
We are all aware of the critical influence that a person’s early educational experience exerts on life chances. Use school days well and you will be well rewarded, but we also know that if these days are wasted the effects can last a lifetime unless you can find a way back onto that path which takes you on the journey into yourself and brings you to your fullest potential. The decision to leave school early fills those of us who hear of it with dread for we know how hard it is to get on in this world without qualifications and the confidence they generate. That is why it is so important that for those who leave school early there is a place like Youthreach where they can recommit themselves to working for their own success.
Choosing what you want to be,what you want to do with your lives, what you need to do to achieve those things - these are all big questions, sometimes too big to handle without help and support. Here again you are well served by Youthreach. Centres like this have transformed the life chances of so many people helping them to make good choices, informed choices, sensible choices and so benefiting both individuals and the community as a whole.
Bonnybrook Youthreach programme has been very successful in breaking new ground and exposing young people to a wide range of social, sporting and cultural experiences. These experiences include the production of your radio show, summer work camps at home and abroad, an exchange visit to Belfast and regular trips to the theatre. Five trainees from the centre had their work accepted for inclusion in the Millennium Art Exhibition at The Dublin Civic Offices. Other trainees have successfully participated in a girls’ football league alongside mainstream schools. In 1996 six trainees received bronze medals under Gaisce – the President’s Award and the centre is again participating in the scheme this year.
There is an Irish saying – Mól an óige agus tiocfaidh sí – praise the youth and they will blossom. It is marvellous to see a young person realise his or her full potential and to develop into a fulfilled and happy adult. We all know that our young people are the future, we all care desperately about them and we hope to give them the very best possible start in life.
Many young parents have found that it is a bit of a high wire balancing act trying to cope with their responsibilities to their children, while at the same time trying to avail of the services of the local Youthreach Project. This crèche is an absolutely essential resource for them. It is most reassuring to know that their children will be looked after in a safe, and happy environment while they are able to take up training, educational or work opportunities. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the V.E.C. for securing funding of crèche costs, because it has enabled all ex-trainees to avail of this wonderful opportunity to return to training for employment, or to return to education for education itself. The after care service for ex-trainees set up in 1999 has been a great success for all those involved.
But I think special thanks must go to the staff at the Centre itself for producing such an obviously healthy and enthusiastic learning environment. An environment which gives all the encouragement and incentives to so many young people at this significant, and sometimes difficult, time in their lives. I sincerely congratulate all who have helped to create the successful Youthreach centre that you have today. You have shown that it takes more than bricks and mortar to make a community. You need a spirit of belonging, a community spirit that unites what is otherwise a random collection of houses, a chance collection of people. This community is fortunate because it has at its centre, a group of people such as yourselves, who share a dream of a better life for everyone in the community and who are willing to do the work to make the dream real. May you all enjoy to the full all that the centre has to offer as a valuable education facility and the place to bind you even more closely together as a caring and neighbourly community.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go leir.