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REVISED TEXT OF ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT ON THE OCCASION OF THE DUBLIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DINNER

REVISED TEXT OF ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT MARY MCALEESE ON THE OCCASION OF THE DUBLIN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE DINNER 6TH MARCH 1998

Over the last while, we’ve been seeing and hearing about Ireland’s impressive economic performance. It has been analysed and scrutinised by commentators and experts in newspapers and pamphlets, and in publications and reports, of all shapes and sizes. The statistics, the facts, the figures are well known to everybody at this stage, so I don’t think that I can add to your store of statistical knowledge this evening.

But I think there’s a consensus that this ‘miracle’ that came about was in no small part due to the imaginative and dedicated work of our commercial, industrial, educational and political sectors working in partnership to bring a high level of very welcome foreign investment to Ireland and investment of high calibre like that of the Financial Services Centre in Dublin. Projects which give us pride in our talents, are visible evidence of the success we are capable of. It definitely didn’t just happen when everybody was asleep or looking the other way.

But there is another dimension to this phenomenal performance – another essential ingredient in that success. We all know that investors place their money carefully in places they trust, and where they believe it will give them a fair return. Another main factor in our success is our people - the combination of abilities, talents, skill, enthusiasm, confidence, boldness that you find in those who are using the resources that are being made available – to harness the great potential that’s there – and to build an economy that can give people a good quality of life and the confidence to play their part in the modern world of commerce, industry and the professions.

Out of that culture came short lines of communication, a ‘can do’ ethos, a caring about the stranger we are befriending whose investment we want but whose friendship and loyalty we also want to cultivate.

My role this evening is really to give recognition to those who have been at the heart of our success – the people who have made this country what it is today. But like the success itself, the people with talent and enthusiasm, the risk-takers, the builders of business and the captains of commerce – they didn’t just materialise over night or over a week-end.

The story goes back decades to those who had the vision and foresight to realise what was needed to bring about this success story – to build the foundation in education and infrastructure on which the economy of today could be brought about.

Seamus Heaney, in his poem “From the Canton of Expectation”, talks about his Ireland of the 1950’s – an anxious place where lack of opportunity had stifled many a talent leaving it still-born, until free education opened the floodgate of talent.

“... suddenly this change of mood.

Books open in the newly wired kitchens.

Young heads that might have dozed a life away against the flanks of milking cows were busy

paving and pencilling their first causeways

across the prescribed texts. The paving stones

of quadrangles came next and a grammar

of imperatives, the new age of demands.

They would banish the conditional for ever

this generation born impervious to

the triumph in our cries of de profundis.

Our faith in winning by enduring most,

they made anathema, intelligences

brightened and unmannerly as crowbars.

 

The “intelligences brightened and unmannerly as crowbars” were the liberated – those who were given access to education – who could finally attain the skills and learning to break out of an existence that looked in on itself. They and many of you here this evening were the ones who started the quiet revolution in Ireland that has brought us to where we are now. When the barriers to education were removed by ground-breaking politicians and public servants with that great vision and foresight, they took off like greyhounds from the traps.

George Bernard Shaw said that “nothing was ever accomplished by a reasonable man” – then he probably hadn’t looked closely enough at “reasonable” women! And things have obviously changed a lot since his time, because our success today could not have been accomplished without the commitment of many reasonable men and women - in management, in leadership, in the workplace – in our unique partnership of unions, employers, farmers and Government - in all sectors of the economy.

Women’s empowerment is essential if women are to fully participate and be represented in decision-making as all levels. It is inextricably linked to wider issues of economic empowerment; education and training; human rights; social attitudes; values and social support systems. Achieving the goal of equal participation of women and men in decision-making would provide the balance that is needed in order to strengthen society as a whole. The capacity of the business community to change is the key to its survival and, indeed, its future success. But change is needed in attitudes to women in business and public life. Our focus should clearly be on encouraging women to take up more and more positions of responsibility in the drive towards the spirit of entrepreneurship.

The people who transformed Ireland into a ‘can do’ culture – who gave it energy and vision, and whose judgement was rewarded with success – they are the ones who saw that change was required and who were prepared to change. In today’s world survival and success are also about change. Success has built up our self-confidence – our national self-esteem – we are a people not afraid to adapt to change.

As I said recently when I addressed the Council of the Irish Management Institute, in business, change is the only constant.

Advances in modern communications and the advent of the information superhighway have added to the pace of change and are profoundly impacting on the way businesses compete, and indeed co-operate. Management theorist Igor Ansoff coined the phrase ‘environmental turbulence’ back in the 1960's to describe the change from a static to a dynamic view of business.

That phrase has even more resonance today for enterprises facing the challenges of a globalised, high tech world.

Commerce is about meeting the challenge of change, generating competition and yet ensuring that a stable economy is the backbone which allows us to control or harness that turbulence, and use it as a source of energy with which to drive forward. It is also about achieving high standards of customer care – of meeting customer requirements and demands – of maintaining high levels of quality and service. The Chamber of Commerce has played a major part in the developing Irish economy, in fostering strategic links and in developing business and trade, based on those high standards of customer care.

Without the calibre of leadership that we are very lucky to have today, we would not be able to sustain the strong position that we are in. There is a professional discipline and commitment across all of the social sectors – people prepared to work long hours, to take risks, to hold their nerve, to work towards a vision. And in an ever changing global economy, where the sands are constantly shifting, the ability to respond to change - to turn the ship about if that’s what it takes - that is the key to survival and to success.

I said earlier that investors don’t invest here just because we’re nice people. True, they don’t. They come because we are adaptable, educated, dynamic, open – because we have a proven track record of success. But they stay and reinvest because we are a nice people – because this is a very pleasant place to do business. Why? Because our collective ethos is to work to build up our country, to spread the benefits of success to all our people. That is what drives us, not unredeemed greed and selfishness. We care about our country, its people, its children, their future. That is why you work so hard – not for reward or recognition or just profit.

That is why I am pleased to thank you for all you are doing and have done and to celebrate with you tonight.

ENDS