REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE, AT A BUSINESS BREAKFAST HOSTED BY ENTERPRISE IRL
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT OF IRELAND, MARY McALEESE, AT A BUSINESS BREAKFAST HOSTED BY ENTERPRISE IRELAND, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
Dia dhíbh go léir ar maidin.
Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentleman,
Einen schoenen guten Morgen meine Damen und Herren
Good morning ladies and gentlemen.
It’s good to be back in Austria again though this time not as a tourist. I’ve traded my skis for speech notes, and traded the beautiful Gastein Valley for equally beautiful Vienna. As a consequence of that exchange, I’m also hopeful that I will put less of a strain on the Austrian emergency services though as a result of my most recent stay in an Austrian hospital I can at least claim to be part Austrian - with two strong Austrian screws holding my ankle together!
Over many years of holidaying here I have come to love this country for its exquisite natural beauty and the graciousness of its people. On this more formal, State visit that graciousness is again evident in abundance and though we talk business and politics, trade and statistics, it is the warmth of the welcome that sets the scene and makes the visit not simply a pleasant memory but a building block towards even greater partnership and mutual endeavour. That is why an event like this is so important, for the handshakes, the conversations, the getting to know one another, the networks and business links generated through informed friendship. I am very grateful to each of you for this opportunity to meet with leading Irish companies engaged in business in Austria and their Austrian partners and customers.
My thanks especially to our Ambassador, David Donoghue, for hosting this event in association with Enterprise Ireland, the Irish Government’s trade and technology agency. This breakfast gives us a chance to celebrate and encourage the steadily increasing trade between our two countries and the considerable benefits that flow from that trade – benefits that are considerably greater than those disclosed by an array of impressive statistics. Trade draws countries into each other’s orbit, creating mutual dependencies, cementing friendships and harvesting previously unused potential. Healthy trade between our two countries vindicates the European Union, breathes life into its hopes and ambitions, draws its disparate citizens into common enterprises, gives them shared prosperity and a tangible benefit of shared citizenship. It ensures that this great adventure in democratic partnership works - that it brings regional stability, underpins egalitarian democracy, promotes human rights and gives Europe’s citizens the widest choices and opportunities, exercised in freedom.
So when we talk about business and trade we have a contemporary, dramatic and inspirational context which previous generations could never have imagined. Yet their lives are invested in it too and that investment goes back a long way in the case of Ireland and Austria. We have been friends for a long time right back to the middle of the first millennium when Irish monks brought the Christian gospel to Austria. The most famous of these monks was probably St Fergil, known here at Saint Virgil, who became Archbishop of Salzburg in the 8th century; and Taaffe, one of Austria’s most distinguished Prime Ministers was another Irish man whose talents helped Austria blossom at a time when the Irish were cruelly driven from their native land.
The grim legacy of colonisation, the long strength-sapping struggle for independence cast long shadows over twentieth-century Ireland. Poverty and widespread emigration were the norm for decades. The tide turned with investment in education, one of the most significant factors in the dramatic growth of the Irish economy. Today we have one of the largest rates of third-level qualifications in the European Union. We are heading for 40% of our working population having third-level qualifications. The remarkable increase in participation of women at this level has also been a major factor in our success. In a recent survey of the top eight OECD countries, Ireland was ranked second in the list of the most wealthy. It is not a bad result for a country whose GDP just over two decades ago was only 70% of the European Union average. Today it is at 140%.
Ireland now trades with more than two hundred countries and we export some ninety percent of everything we produce. Austria is an important location for these exports. Our bilateral trade is flourishing, valued last year at €645 million. We now trade in a wide range of products and services. Sales by Irish companies grew rapidly following Austria’s entry to the EU in 1995 – as high as 20% in some years and last year, Irish sales in Austria were worth a record €400 million. Behind those statistics are stories you will be familiar with – of opportunities created, seized, invested in, of risks taken, of sheer hard work and now of relentless pressure to keep up the success.
Austria has a population twice that of Ireland and like us, you realised that the domestic market was too small to achieve sustained economic growth and so you looked outward – to what is now the vast home market of the European Union, as well as to the even vaster global marketplace. We recognise just how well positioned Austria is placed - at the crossroads of Central Europe as the EU expands eastwards. I wish to congratulate the Austrian companies who were among the first to grasp the opportunities that the EU expansion has presented and likewise to congratulate the Irish companies who are targeting these markets for the most part in alliance with Austrian and Central European partners.
Austria we know offers excellent business potential for Irish companies and we know too that there is potential to further accelerate sales by Irish companies in Austria and beyond. Such opportunities are right across the business spectrum, particularly so in sectors where Irish companies are already active in Austria. In telecommunications, financial services and e-government software, medical supplies, automotive sub-supply, the semiconductor and microelectronics industry and other sectors, Irish companies are winning business in Austria, based on strong partnerships with local companies.
Irish-owned companies have become highly successful players in the highly competitive global marketplace and are continuously fuelling the growth of the Irish economy. Innovation and internationalisation have become their by-words and we see in companies such as Anglo-Irish Bank, Norkom, Conduit, e-Tel just how impressive are the results where there is a marriage of imagination and commitment to the market.
For all our sophisticated technology, trade still starts with us, with human endeavour and with good ideas. It flourishes where there is trust, friendship and proven track records.
I hope that this morning’s event will help to consolidate existing partnerships and to explore new ones, bringing prosperity to Ireland and Austria, bringing strength, success and confidence to the European Union.
Go raibh maith agaibh.
Vielen dank und auf wiedersehen.
Goodbye and thank you.