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Remarks at a reception on St. Patrick’s Day Sunday

Áras an Uachtaráin, 17 March 2013

Dear Friends

Tá áthas orm féin agus ar Sabina fáilte a chuir róimh anseo tráthnóna. Is mór againn gur tháinig sibh, go mór mór na daoine a thaisteal ó Thuaisceart Éireann.

Sabina and I are delighted to welcome members of the Board, the staff and volunteers of the Citizens Information Board, along with the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, the Sign Language Interpreting Service and the National Advocacy Service to our St. Patrick’s Day celebration. You are all most welcome to Áras an Uachtaráin.

St. Patrick’s Day is an opportunity for all of us Irish, the global Irish family, wherever they are living, to joyously acknowledge our shared heritage and culture and to celebrate and make our commitment to an Irishness of which we all can be proud. The life story of St. Patrick is one of perseverance through adversity, generosity overcoming cruelty and a people being transformed through the power of spiritual idealism.

As we know, Patrick showed a tremendous capacity for endurance and forgiveness, and a willingness to work with, and to respect those who did not share his views. In his own life Patrick overcame great personal trauma and forgave those who had caused him suffering. He was torn from his family and forced into a harsh life, yet he chose to return and work for the benefit of the people of this island. Patrick is an example to us all of someone who was driven by a strong sense of mission to transform society, to encourage people to aspire for meaning in their lives and to give them hope. Just as St. Patrick brought a vision of hope and renewal to his people, we in our time have our own dream of a better, kinder, fairer shared world.

We are of course a very different country today than the Ireland of Patrick’s time, and in this, the European Year of the Citizen, it is right to reflect on the changing nature of Ireland’s demographic landscape and to reflect, too, on how well we are serving and protecting all those in our changing population.

Ireland has become a very diverse society over a relatively short period of time and, significantly, this process is continuing. Between 2006 and 2011 we witnessed an increase of almost 30% in the number of non-Irish born resident here. For instance, there are now more than 41,000 Africans resident in Ireland, an increase of 18% in the past five years. People from over 188 countries call Ireland home and our celebrations today are enriched by this tapestry of cultures. As to our Irish born minority, of course, the census also shows that the number of Irish Travellers has increased by close to 32%.

Such changes are exciting. So much of everyday living in Ireland has changed for the better as we welcome new cultural influences – in food, in dress, in music, in dance, in art, in sport, in literature. Today as we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day we know that we do so in a truly multicultural society and as we look to the future we hope that the society we continue to build is good for everyone, a cohesive society based on solidarity between all its members.

Great challenges to that solidarity exist, however, and must be confronted if we are to realize the dream of an Ireland where all live with respect and dignity. Intolerance, poverty and inequality damage the fabric of our society. The Economic and Social Research Institute has told us, for instance, that in 2006, 25% of black people said they have been racially abused or threatened; the Teachers Union of Ireland have reported that almost 50% of teachers have witnessed racism in their classrooms.

With more than 2000 children in Traveller families deprived of basic facilities, I suggest that some of our most pernicious and debilitating covert and overt exclusionary attitudes are directed against Irish Travellers. Sociologist Michael McGreil, who has been studying public attitudes for many decades now, has found that while Irish attitudes to other minority groups have improved over the past decades, discriminatory attitudes to Travellers continue and remain stubbornly resistant to change.

Poverty and inequality also challenge our social cohesion. You know better than most that the recession that has ensued these past five years has caused real and lasting hardship for families and communities. Unemployment, and particularly long-term unemployment, has affected far too many of our people – both young and old, male and female, highly educated and those less well educated.

In 2010 the Central Statistics Office (CSO) reported that almost a quarter of the population reported experiencing two or more types of enforced deprivation compared with just over 17.0% in 2009. More recent figures from the CSO confirm that the recession is having a particularly difficult impact on households with children. The CSO’s research on children from the 2004 to 2010 Survey on Income and Living Conditions found a sharp rise in the percentage of households with children reporting “great difficulty” in making ends meet, at 19 per cent in 2010 compared with just 6 per cent in 2009. Indeed the Money Advice and Budgeting Service reported in 2012 that the total amount owed by new clients to creditors at the end of 2011 was €498m, a 16% increase on the 2010 debt figure.

These are serious obstacles to a genuinely inclusive citizenship; life draining impediments which can erect so many barriers between an individual and the society they wish to engage in. A citizen not afforded the right to put a roof over their heads; to feed themselves and their families; to remain within the educational system and achieve their full potential, is a citizen trapped in a cycle of disadvantage, lost opportunity and exclusion.

The Citizen’s Information Board, and its constituent bodies, plays a vital role supporting people in realising their rights and entitlements which underpin equal participation. I have said before that this frontline effort of support and advocacy is not glamorous work, unless, indeed, you tell me otherwise, but this is fundamental work at the heart of transforming lives and critical to the legitimacy and renewal of our public services.
- There is nothing more essential, I suggest, to our existence than the opportunity to receive another person in their vulnerability as an equal: to engage as equals requires that we throw off false and self serving notions of power and status and acknowledge and honour our shared vulnerability as human beings. To meet those who are troubled, fragile and marginalised with empathy is a privilege only we as humans can know, a privilege those of you gathered here today have the opportunity to experience daily.

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 Information Board play a hugely important role in creating a truly democratic society.

I am aware that in 2011 for the first time the Citizens Information Service handled over one million queries from over 650,000 people and that the Citizens Information Phone Service information officers responded to 167,286 requests from the public, an increase of over 16% in 2010. The Money Advice and Budgeting Service continues to be in great demand with 22, 462 new users in 2011. I would also like to commend all of you on your work in collaboration with a wide range of well established expert community and voluntary agencies such as DeafHear, the Free Legal Advice Centres, Threshhold, Treior, Inclusion Ireland, and the Immigrant Council of Ireland. Alliances across groups strengthens our community and such cooperation is the most intelligent use of talent and skills in these demanding times.

Labhair mé cheana ar an bhfís atá agam den tsaoránacht chuimsitheach a bheadh bunaithe ar an gcomhionannas, ar an meas, ar an dlúthpháirtíocht agus ar an rannpháirtíocht; agus labhair mé freisin ar an dlúthchomhar a chur chun cinn idir na glúine éagsúla i measc an phobail mar acmhainn chriticiúil chun na deacrachtaí atá againn faoi láthair a shárú. Trí thacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine aonair agus do chlanna atá ag déileáil le deacrachtaí, le bochtaineacht agus leis an eisiamh sóisialta, tá sibh ag cabhrú leis an bhfís sin a fhíorú.

[I have spoken before of my vision of an inclusive citizenship based on equality, respect, solidarity and participation, and promoting inter-generational and inter-community solidarity as a critical means to overcome our present difficulties. By supporting individuals and families coping with difficulties, poverty and exclusion you are helping to make that vision a reality.]

I have been heartened in my time as President as I visit communities across Ireland, that the sense of community is not lost to us. In spite of the tremendous economic difficulties faced daily, we continue to understand the need to create a society benchmarked by the right of all our citizens to shelter, food, security, a good and sustainable environment and freedom from fear and insecurity, from childhood to old age. Every one of us, every human person, is born with potential. When it is harnessed, unlocked, it serves to build confident, capable, participating, fulfilled citizens. Thank you again, for the work each one of you do, in responding as equals to your fellow citizens, in answering a query, alleviating a worry or empowering those who seek advice through information and respect.
Today we celebrate and honour all of you, and all of those who work tirelessly, in communities across the country, for our renewal.

Today we also celebrate and take pride in the impact and resonance of Irish culture and heritage across the world. We cherish the creativity, community spirit and rich culture for which we, as a nation, are renowned. I have said on many occasions that while the experience of the so called Celtic Tiger failed to live up to the best versions of Irishness, we have not been failed by our artists. In fact, our artists are a huge moral resource and great reputational asset for Ireland.

In recent days, I have invited to Áras an Uachtaráin some of Ireland’s best artists to demonstrate through conversation and performance the depth and breadth of our island’s cultural richness and its reach across the global diaspora. Titled “The Glaoch” or Calling, the fruits of that endeavour will be broadcast and available world-wide tonight
at 9:30 on RTE. I hope it makes a contribution to our celebration of Irishness and that it demonstrates why there are very good reasons to be proud of our island in all its diversity.

The artists we have invited this afternoon – the Discovery Gospel Choir, the Kilfenora Ceili Band, Chris Kavanagh and Galway poet Rita Ann Higgins, reflect that diversity and rich talent among us. I would like to thank them, and our Master of Ceremonies, Carrie Crowley, for joining us. Sabina and I are so grateful that these artists have chosen to spend their St. Patrick’s Day with us and with you.

Go raibh mile maith agaibh go léir – thank you very much.