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Speeches

Remarks to Citizen’s Advice, Northern Ireland AGM

Waterfront Hall, Belfast, 30th October 2012

Ladies and Gentlemen

I am delighted to be with you here today at your Annual General Meeting. I would like to thank John Devine for inviting me to address you and also all of you for that very kind welcome.
Your organisation places the word ‘citizen’ at its very centre. It is an organisation born over seventy years ago out of terrible tragedy when almost one thousand people were killed during two air raids in Belfast and an information centre was set up to help citizens dealing with the dreadful practical consequences of that horrific event. Over the following decades you continued to respond to citizens coping with unexpected events or navigating uncharted territory, providing independent and impartial advice to anyone who needed your services.

The economic environment which citizens north and south of the border are experiencing has, we know, changed considerably in recent years. Job loss, high levels of personal debt, negative equity, and high levels of unemployment has lead to increasing demands for information, advice and advocacy. Many of you here today interact on a day to day basis with the many citizens who are struggling to cope with financial problems, or discrimination or lack of employment; citizens attempting to establish their rights, and how they can go about availing of those rights; and, of course, citizens bewildered and disheartened by the bureaucratic quagmire through which they must so often wade in order to claim those rights.
When accepting the office of the President of Ireland, I recognised the need for an energetic and dynamic citizenship which made room for all the people within our society, including those on the margins, the poor, the weak and the disadvantaged. I have spoken, on many occasions, about the need to build together an active, inclusive citizenship; based on participation, equality and respect for all; of the importance of achieving a society where everyone receives the opportunity to participate at every level and in every way – to be the arrow; not the target.

True citizenship should be based on equality of opportunity and the accordance of equal value to every citizen, including a basic level of rights and participation. There can be no room, in such a vision of citizenship, for the prevention of full participation due to poverty, discrimination, lack of basic competencies and lifelong learning opportunities or a legal illiteracy that leaves people vulnerable to prejudice, inequality, abuse or exclusion.

There is no doubt that lack of access to information and advice can create just such a vulnerable citizen, a citizen who is not enabled to exercise their voice or to claim their rights and entitlements, a citizen who is not empowered to enter into informed dialogue about decisions which affect their lives, a citizen who feels unable to defend themselves or to assert their opinion or to speak up and object when they feel their rights are being violated or ignored.

Indeed, lack of information is one of the main barriers to the achievement of an inclusive citizenship and a significant impediment to the creation of a truly democratic society in which all citizens can actively participate and ensure that their voice is heard, their opinion is respected. It is a true failing of society if differential access to information and advice, or overly complicated bureaucratic processes and complex rules and eligibility criteria place people’s natural rights beyond their reach and out of their grasp.

Unfortunately, however, in this contemporary world it can sometimes appear that society has, in many ways, entered into an era of un-freedom, of excessive bureaucratisation. Many of our citizens, in particular our most vulnerable, must sometimes feel that they have entered what sociologist Max Weber has described as the ‘polar night of icy darkness’, a dehumanised landscape where they may feel trapped by red tape, may perceive that their rights are secondary to a need for official and administrative efficiency and to overly complicated and difficult to comprehend rules and criteria.

Bureaucracy in itself need not be of course, a negative concept. It is when it is made irrational in its assumptions and practices that it is not only unhelpful but dangerous. If, however, we structure and administer our systems, our public services and our procedures in a manner which erects multiple and difficult hurdles to be jumped and obstacles to be navigated, we cannot fail to stand accused of failing some of the most vulnerable people within our society. A truly inclusive society cannot exist where citizens are separated from the mechanism of the state and unable to access the information and assistance they need to engage with officialdom, to meet the challenges which life has unexpectedly thrown at them, to plan and steer a route forwards.

For many people, in this digital age, information is more accessible than ever before. Modern technology has allowed citizens to communicate effortlessly and swiftly, has provided them with greater opportunities to become fully informed or to conduct extensive research when making an important decision and has, ultimately, facilitated them in participating in society at greater levels than ever before. All of this is, of course, good and positive.

We must remain mindful, however, of the very real danger of rapid technological advancement leaving an increasing number of people behind. As more and more information becomes available exclusively on-line and an increasing array of forms and claims are required to be accessed, completed and submitted electronically, a digital divide is beginning to emerge between those who can access and make use of these new technologies and those who cannot. It is important that this information age, with all its many, many advantages, does not deepen or indeed create a new layer of inequality within our societies.
We must, if we are to craft a genuinely inclusive society, work to bridge this digital gap and ensure that we do not allow increasing levels of exclusion to develop within our disadvantaged sectors of society, that we do not fail them by ignoring the danger of a growing isolation for those who find themselves on the wrong side of the digital divide.

In conclusion, if we are to continue to transform our society, to build an active and inclusive citizenship, that transformation must be rooted in the best instincts of both the head and the heart. We need people who have a generous instinct to reach out to others, respect their essential dignity and empower them to have a voice in society. Organisations like the Citizens Advice Bureau play a hugely important role in creating a truly democratic society. The work of your own organisation is more essential than ever in these economically straitened times. Your advice helps people resolve their problems with debt, benefits, employment, housing and discrimination. I am aware that the free, independent and confidential advice you provide helps over 83,000 people and over 180,000 people online. That is the direct help that you give. But by being available to everyone you have a reach across all of the communities, including those recently arrived on this island.

Ba mhaith liom moladh mór a thabhairt don obair a dhéanann sibh lena chinntiú go mbíonn ar chumas mhuintir Thuaisceart Éireann sásamh iomlán a bhaint as tairbhe a saorántachta. Tugann an tsíocháin úrnua agus an chobhsaíocht a bhfuil muintir Thuaisceart Éireann ag baint leasa aisti, deis do dhaoine machnamh a dhéanamh ar bhealaí le dul chun cinn sa todhchaí, comhthodhchaí agus sochaí a bheas fíor-eiticiúil agus uileghabhálach. Ní féidir áibhéil a dhéanamh ar an tábhacht a bhaineann le heagraíocht mar atá agaibhse i gcruthú na físe sin do mhuintir Thuaisceart Éireann agus molaim sibh go mór dá réir.

[I would like to commend the work that you do to ensure that the people of Northern Ireland are able to fully enjoy the benefits of their citizenship. The unprecedented peace and stability which the people of Northern Ireland are now enjoying allows for a consideration of how to move forward into the future, a shared future and a society which is profoundly ethical and inclusive. The importance of an organisation like yours in making this idea possible for the people of Northern Ireland cannot be overstated and I commend you for that. ]
Finally, I would like to thank you once again for inviting me to be here today and I wish you a successful and productive Annual General Meeting.

Thank you very much.