Remarks by President McAleese on the occasion of the Annual Lunch of the Small Firms Association
Remarks by President McAleese on the occasion of the Annual Lunch of the Small Firms Association Burlington Hotel
Is mór an pléisiúir dom bheith i bhur measc inniu ag an ocáid seo agus tá me buíoch díbh as an chuireadh a thug sibh dom teacht anseo.
I am delighted to be with you once again on the occasion of the Annual Lunch of the Small Firms Association. My special thanks to your President, Pat Delaney for the kind invitation and to each of you for the warm welcome.
The conversations at these lunches differ greatly from year to year. Long gone are the days of a small, narrowly based, ponderously inward looking economy unaffected by global trends. Today, Ireland as one of the world’s most open and successful modern economies, faces full into whatever the prevailing internal and external winds bring with them. That means you face into them, day in and day out. You try to make sense of them, try to adapt to them, try to survive and transcend them. This year we meet in more cautious times when growth has been trimmed back, global market conditions have lost their buoyancy and an element of uncertainty has crept into our language and our thinking. While Ireland’s situation is still better than most and the envy of many, you are among the people on the front line of a rapidly changing business environment vulnerable to everything from global politics to technological innovation, from consumer sentiment to European legislation. But you are also rooted deeply in community and the health, stability and prosperity of local communities crucial to the well-being of your businesses. Strong, self-confident individuals, build strong self-confident communities and as major stakeholders in our civic society you have a large vested interest in ensuring that we empower and harness our entire talent base letting nothing and no-one go to waste. Where there is poverty, where there is underachievement, there are lives half-lived and many opportunities tragically thrown away.
One of the things that has characterised Irish business and in particular Small Businesses has been the remarkable extent to which it has outreached deep into community, supporting and sponsoring the many strands of individual and community endeavour that underpin our society. Corporate Social Responsibility is an emerging theme in business today from sponsorship of local football teams to charity donations and it is very encouraging to see that Ireland has one of the highest levels of Corporate Social Responsibility in Europe. For example, Ireland ranks very highly in the contribution of the SME sector. So not only do you bring local services and employment, you are also crucial empowerers of so much that is good and that builds up community. From respite care, to day care for the elderly, from crèches, to after schools clubs, from sports to the President’s awards, the charitable contributions of small businesses provide huge encouragement and essential leverage. You are entitled to considerable thanks for that work, so often done quietly and with little fanfare, but with such powerful effect on our civic life.
Your sector is responsible for in the region of 50% of total private sector employment and with unemployment at historically low levels you are entitled to take both credit for and pride in the raft of economic and social improvements which you have helped to seed-bed. Ten years ago, we could not have imagined that the level of employment in Ireland would not only be increasing every year, but would be such that we now have net inward migration of labour to this country. No generation in Ireland has had that story to tell since the Plantation of Ulster! This is the highest achieving generation our country has known and despite the spate of recent set-backs we have the reassurance of knowing what we are capable of, the pride in what we have already accomplished and the challenge of making good use of new, emerging opportunities.
The planned enlargement of the European Union, will add 130 million consumers to the Internal Market. I have no doubt that the Small Business sector, building on its track record of entrepreneurial genius to date, will benefit, to a major degree, from the enhanced export opportunities enlargement presents.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2001 recently confirmed that 7.2% of the Irish population or 273,600 people were engaged in the process of trying to start a new business. Your success is their inspiration and of course your organisation is their likely home. Future membership of SFA looks like a rising curve. I hope the same will be true of profit margins, of employment figures and of community outreach and that your sector will emerge strong and resilient from these more difficult times, I congratulate the Association for the continuing support, advice and encouragement you give to small business and to the community. If you are prospering, then Ireland is prospering. So - long may you prosper.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.