REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS AT ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN, THURSDAY, 13th JANUARY
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE TO THE DIPLOMATIC CORPS AT ÁRAS AN UACHTARÁIN THURSDAY, 13th JANUARY, 2005
A Oirircis, A Oirirceasa, a Aire is a Uaisle Uile,
Cuireann sé áthas orm agus ar m’fhear céile, Mairtín, fáilte ó chroí a chur romhaibh go léir go hÁras an Uachtaráin. Tá mé an-bhuíoch as na beannachtaí a chur sibh orainn agus ar mhuintir na hÉireann uilig. Tá súil agam go mbeidh athbhliain faoi mhaise agaibh agus gúim sonas, sláinte agus buansíocháin oraibh go léir.
Your Excellency, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, Excellencies, Minister Treacy, Ladies and Gentlemen, Girls and Boys.
My thanks to you all for the kind greetings and generous good wishes you have offered to Martin and I and, through us, to the people of Ireland. I am delighted to welcome you and your families to Áras an Uachtaráin and to offer each of you the thanks of the Irish people and their good wishes for the coming year. I give a particularly warm welcome to the newcomers among you, especially those who have opened new embassies in the past year.
2004 ended with the appalling loss of life and terrible destruction wreaked by the earthquake and tsunami in so many countries on St. Stephen’s Day. The world looked on sick with distress at such suffering and then galvanised its decency and its solidarity in the most amazing outpouring of concern probably ever witnessed. Many of you represent countries which have been directly affected by the catastrophe and I hope that amidst the trauma and the sea of sorrow there is some comfort and reassurance in the kindness of strangers of all nationalities, all creeds, all united in their goodness and their grief. I very much appreciate your attendance at the ceremony of silence held here last week to express our sympathy with all the victims of the disaster. I am also very proud to live in a country which has shown the genuineness of its concern in unprecedented levels of practical and financial aid.
I pay tribute to everyone who has brought hope and help to those shattered people and shattered communities. While the governments of the countries affected will of course take the lead, it is clear that the international community must assist both now and in the difficult months, even years ahead. Ireland is playing its part in these efforts with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, and the Heads of the leading Irish NGOs in Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka this week and you will forgive me if I say a special word of thanks to our ambassador in the region Dan Mulhall and his staff. No ambassador is trained to trek from mortuary to mortuary in search of missing countrymen and women, or to cope with the aftermath of something so unique in human history and yet he and so many of your diplomatic colleagues headed into the chaos and the mess and were among the first to begin the vital task of bringing order and assistance, help and comfort to the bereft and the bereaved.
If nature did her worst in the Indian Ocean, we human beings have created our own fair share of avoidable misery all around our world in the past year and we have to ask whether we have done enough to counter and prevent the humanitarian and security crises provoked by unresolved conflicts, terrorism, trafficking of people, trafficking of drugs, the Aids epidemic and the corruption and greed which consign too many of the world’s citizens to poverty and hopelessness.
There is little doubt that the better we work together the more effective are our responses and that is why your work is so very important, weaving as you do networks of friendship and cooperation between the family of nations and peoples who share this world, most of whom live in deep and dangerous ignorance of one another but many of whom, as we have seen, care deeply about each other if given the opportunity to show it. The citizens of the world manifestly want us to create structures for mutual help and co-operation which are effective, confident and credible.
Towards the end of this year world leaders will meet with United Nations Secretary General Annan in New York. It is vital that in the run up to this major event we reiterate our commitment to multilateralism because the United Nations, for all its acknowledged difficulties, remains the most potent locus of international cooperation. When it is strong our world is strong and we have a vested interest in ensuring it has the structures, support and resources necessary to show effective leadership where it is most needed.
This year Ireland will celebrate fifty years of membership of the United Nations and our commitment to its values and goals are as unshakeable as ever. We are proud of how we have showcased that commitment over half a century, especially in the peacekeeping work of our defence forces and in our diplomatic endeavours during our term on the Security Council.
Ireland has extensive and valued bilateral relations with an increasing number of countries which have been built up over time. It is our intention to continue working towards strengthening and deepening these important ties which are crucial to our own development as well as to the development of healthy, collegial relationships generally in our world. We greatly appreciate your efforts to help us achieve this.
The European Union continues to provide an example for the world of what can be achieved by partnership, collaboration and understanding between States – even by States which have a history of rivalry and conflict. Ireland, although geographically situated on the periphery of our great continent has a deep, centuries old European vocation and our period as a member state of the EU has brought more changes than during any equivalent period of our history; our economy has flourished, our population decline has been reversed, our self-confidence has increased and our relations with our nearest neighbours have never been better.
Membership of the EU has allowed us - and each of our partners - to achieve collectively far more than we could have achieved individually. We have discovered that interests can be protected and promoted through the spirit of respect for diversity and accommodation of difference which is the hallmark of the European Union.
The Union’s future development is likely to be strongly influenced by two events which took place during Ireland’s Presidency in the first half of last year - the accession of ten new member states in May and the agreement in June on a European Constitution. The enlargement process reached a moving and important milestone in this very house last year. I will never forget the simple but historic flag-raising ceremony that took place here on the 1st May which promises so much for our shared future. The enlargement process is set to continue, with very important decisions taken just a few weeks ago at the European Council.
The Union, of course, is not only about Europeans. The development of a coherent and effective Union is in the best interests of the entire international community. The Union is an important vehicle for promoting prosperity, sustainable development, and peace and security in the wider world.
The link between natural phenomena and human vulnerability has been brought into sharp focus by the events in South Asia. What is clear is that the capacity of nations and communities to initially react to natural phenomena, recover and move on after such events is closely related to development, poverty and emergency preparedness.
Long term development assistance programmes never gain the headlines that emergency relief programmes do, however it is the slow and difficult human development gains made in healthcare provision, education and improved democratic governance and infrastructure that will ultimately allow communities and people protect themselves, understand and respond more quickly to natural threats and enjoy better standards of living.
2005 has the potential to be a significant year for development cooperation. World leaders will meet at the United Nations in September to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals which were agreed by 189 nations in 2000. Are those goals to be achievements we can be proud of or failures to haunt us and our children? Will there be schools for the world’s children, will there be safe drinking water and a healthy environment, will there be freedom from slavery especially for the women of the world, will there be an end to HIV/AIDS, will there be jobs, hope, will there be a life worth living? If a tidal wave of water can wreak such devastation, what immense good could a tidal wave of development assistance accomplish for the world’s poor?
Ireland continues to be among the leading donor nations in the world with a commitment to spend a minimum of €1.8 billion in development assistance over the next three years. We know how much good that money can do, how many lives depend on it. We remember what it was to be poor, to be forgotten, to watch our talents go to waste. Those memories have seeded a culture of restless conscience, a value system which makes the world’s poor our concern and which we as a nation cherish.
I recently visited the troubled country of Liberia in West Africa, which has been a particular focus for Ireland during 2004. Irish engagement in the country has been twofold - through humanitarian interventions by Development Cooperation Ireland, the Government’s official development programme and through the presence of Irish peacekeeping troops in the country. While the country remains devastated following a long and brutal war, considerable progress has been made during the last year, particularly in the area of disarmament of child soldiers and tens of thousands of weapons have now been destroyed. This UN process of demobilisation and rehabilitation, part funded by Ireland, is crucial if the peace deal is to last and a feeling of safety and security among the people is to return. Ireland will explore further ways of assisting Liberia next year and will open a development cooperation office in Sierra Leone but we appeal to those who could, by their actions, shorten the journey to peace and prosperity to use their abilities to build a decent future for the many, to make Africa in particular a triumphant showcase of all its great resources and talents, instead of a catalogue of failure and waste.
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, all sorts of things link us as members of a common global family but few are as structured, reliable, hard-working and generally overlooked as the quietly authoritative work of the diplomat. It is impossible to quantify the value of that work and impossible too to overestimate it. Yours are busy and tough lives, as demanding on spouses, partners and children as much as on professional diplomats. We thank each of you for the professional and the personal sacrifices you make in order that this work is done and done well. That our world works as well as it does is, in part, thanks to you, that it is often saved from bigger messes is often thanks to you. Thank you for committing to this essential work. May you always find it satisfying and fulfilling and may 2005 be a year of special happiness for each of you.
Guím rath agus sonas oraibh go léir.
I would now like to propose a toast -
TO THE HEADS OF STATE HERE REPRESENTED.