Remarks by President McAleese at a Garden Party for Representatives of Business Enterprise
Remarks by President McAleese at a Garden Party for Representatives of Business Enterprise, Conference Ambassadors and Tourism
A chairde. Fáilte roimh go léir go dtí Áras an Uachtaráin.
Hello everyone and a warm welcome to Áras an Uachtaráin and to this special reception in honour of the business people of this island who have done so much to transform the Irish economy into one of the leading economic growth performers in the industrialised world. You have made us into a significant trading nation, the most globalised in the world.
Ireland missed the first industrial revolution but you have helped propel us to the forefront of the second industrial revolution. There is of course, considerable focus on the recent downturn in the Irish economy, a downturn far from unique to Ireland. But thanks to you, Ireland still has a story to tell which is the envy of almost all others. Maintaining and growing that enviable position despite all the capricious winds that blow internally and externally is the challenge we all face and face best working together. Two shortens the road, says the old Irish proverb and in these very tough, testing times it is particularly true.
The Special Olympic World Summer Games, which were strongly supported by Irish business, were a spectacular showcase of what we can achieve when everyone works together for a common cause. That spirit of shared concern and shared endeavour has huge potential for our future economic well-being, so much of which lies in your hands and in the hands of all stakeholders in our society - that means all of us. We see it at work already in the Conference Ambassador initiative, just one example of imaginative harnessing of our collective energies. We see a new spirit at work between North and South where for years opportunities and synergies were tragically wasted rendering the land border between North and South the European Union land border with the least commerce across it. The poet John Hewitt put it quite elegantly - “we build to fill the centuries arrears”. Some of you here are players in filling those arrears and on that in-filled site, you will help build a strong island economy, a shared future of partnership and prosperity North and South.
Many of you take Irish products to the four corners of the globe and you know better than most the dangers we face from other competitor countries and their products. Ireland is no longer a low cost, low wage economy. Ours is a sophisticated and ambitious economy moving rapidly up the value chain. Ours is also a republic of equals with a strong innate urge to widen social inclusion to its limits and reveal the fullest power of our greatest natural asset - our people.
There was a time when we were characterized by the expression “ceann faoi”. Today we are characterized by the expression “can do”. You have brought Ireland along the remarkable road from “ceann faoi” to “can do”.
I wish you energy for the journey ahead, whatever sector you are in. I thank you once again for all you have done to make both your own organisations and our economy strong. I thank you for the resilience, imagination and determination you are bringing to bear on these restless times and I hope you will be rewarded by much more stable and successful days ahead.
Enjoy the company of old friends this afternoon and as expert networkers enjoy the opportunity to make new friends too. On your behalf may I thank our entertainers the very talented Four-Tune Cookies, Grainne Brookfield Trio and our MC Eugene Downes. I would also like to thank Amanda Coogan from Irish Sign Link, the Áras staff and Civil Defence staff.
Go raibh maith agaibh