merrion street

I’m delighted to be here this evening.

Thank you David Ellwood Iris Bohnet and the Institute of Politics for inviting me.

I come here today to talk to you about re-asserting Ireland’s place in the world.

I do so happily proudly, on behalf of our new government our ancient country our noble people.

In that fateful year 1963 in his address to the Irish parliament, President Kennedy asked the old question

“how can a nation as small as Ireland play much of a role on the world stage?”

Then true to form, he answered it.   

‘

, he said.

’

Ireland, he said, was

50 years on, I’m proud to report it still is.

That visit that ‘homecoming’ lit up our 1960s lives.

President Kennedy brought a Hollywood glamour to our towns and cities.  

In Cork city they said ‘he was only divine’.

And looking back at that last Kennedy Summer ‘for so many people ‘divine’ seemed just about right  in all its interpretations.

An Irishman in the White House. 

Just a year after the Cuban Missile Crisis and here was the Leader of the Free World and he came ‘home’ to Ireland to his own ‘people’. 

Today, I pay a warm, deeply-deserved tribute to President John Fitzgerald Kennedy 

And indeed to the Kennedy family for being steadfast in their love for Ireland and the Irish 

I thank them for all they have done for Ireland and the Irish people. 

Here at the Kennedy School of Government you attract some of the world’s best and brightest  people.

Our own former President of Ireland and United Nations High Commissioner, Mary Robinson, studied here.  

Indeed, your alumni include eight US presidents, 75 Nobel Prize winners and 62 billionaires that’s just the ones who are still alive. 

But in keeping with the Kennedy dictum ’of those to whom much is given, much is required’ every graduate of this school goes on to use his and her skill, experience passion for what they do, right across the world. 

his is something Ireland and the Irish have been doing for centuries.

Yes – in recent timeswe have hit the headlines for reasons we would not have wished

But if that which has been so ‘

’ and so public about Ireland has been negative then I can assure you it is equally something temporary passing.    

Today, in reasserting Ireland’s place in the world, I want to remind America and indeed that world of the ‘

wealth and value of Ireland and the Irish people

A wealth that can never be ‘accumulated in banks, or measured by the markets or traded on the stock exchange’.

Because it remains intact, alive, sacrosanct in the proud territory of our people.

In the transforming currency of the Irish heart, imagination, soul.

Above all, in the

the innate nobility that has sustained us on our Atlantic island for several thousand years.

And will for many thousands more.

That is ‘the ore of our worth’.

It is that same ore that same Uaisleacht that sent us off across the world as missionaries, teachers, doctors, engineers.

To the Lebanon and other conflicts, through UNIFIL and our commitment to international peace and security under the UN Charter.

But that global courage is not recent nor is it new.

In the sixth century Irish monks set sail from our island to bring what was ‘a semi-barbarian Europe’ out of the Dark Ages. 

Our monk Columbanus praised by Pope Benedict as the Patron Saint of Europe

Brought ‘illumination’ to the Franks and to the Rhineland before building his great monastic settlement his great ‘European’ settlement of learning and faith and culture at Bobbio in Italy.

Columbanus and his community spearheaded what was called ‘a Christian Renaissance’

A renaissance that would unite Europe through the discipline, the love and hope of Christianity.

1,400 years ago Ireland ‘colonised the minds of Europe.’

Therefore as much or more than any other it is the Irish sensibility the Irish

that created and inhabited the beginnings of what would become Modern Europe. 

This is a seminal development in the history of Ireland and the history of Europe.

It is something we are deeply proud of.

Something that must always be remembered especially at this difficult juncture for country for our European Union and for our world. 

That innate power and potential of the Irish people is felt closely by the Irish themselves and is recognised worldwide.

One only has to look at the level of international goodwill directed towards our country and all its endeavours.

Last May, in the space of one week, two world leaders – Queen Elizabeth II and President Barack Obama visited Ireland opened new chapters in these vital relationships.  

In addressing our Parliament in 1963 President Kennedy said:

“the present and the future of Ireland holds so much promise to my nation and indeed to all mankind”.

On that late June day, we took him at his word.

Almost 50 years on, we still do.

And especially in these difficult times.

Towards the end of 2010, Ireland found itself shut out of the financial markets.

 Inevitably, our country had to turn to the IMF and the European Union for funding. 

It was indeed a bleak midwinter. For our country, our pride, our people.

In late February Ireland went to the polls.

The people spoke and returned a government comprising the Fine Gael Party and the Labour Party

A government with the largest mandate in the history of the Irish state.  

A mandate to solve Ireland’s problems to steer our country back towards prosperity renew our reputation and  to get our people and our country working. 

It’s a tough mandate in tough times.

And to fulfill it and the wishes of our people, we have focused on some key issues.

Restoring Ireland’s place as a respected and influential member of the international community.

Resolving the crisis in our banks and our public finances

Rescuing our economy so that we get Ireland working to and at its optimum once more.

Just less than a year on, there is clear evidence our plan will work:

We restructured and recapitalised our banking sector with private investments and deposits flowing back into our banks.

We are pursuing a solid plan to bring our public finances back into order…yields in Irish government bonds have more than halved since last July.

We have raised revenues without raising income taxes.

In economics and politics and business there is less talk of Ireland’s difficulties and more talk of our recovery…. of our opportunity 

There is more we want to do and that needs to be done.

I won’t pretend to you that it’s been easy.

The road is long, but we’ve made a firm start.

The Irish people, young and old, have shown great courage and resilience, making sacrifices in order to help us get our public finances on a more stable path.

Right now, we’re on target to correct our budget deficit

Our steady actions are sending strong signals to the financial markets about our determination to stick to the plan. 

No it’s not easy.

But I want to retrieve Ireland's economic sovereignty, and lead a Government that will help our country succeed.

I want to make Ireland the best small country in the world in which to do business, in which to raise a family and in which to grow old with dignity and respect.

And this evening, I want to send a message to other countries that Ireland can be a role model for them as they tackle their difficulties.

In 2011, growth returned to Ireland for the first time in several years. 

That gradual growth is scheduled to continue this year. 

Competitiveness is improving rapidly.

Our exports are at record levels. 

Sectors where we excel - pharmaceuticals, software, financial services, business services and the agri-food industry - are performing especially well. 

 It is hardly surprising then that many US multinationals in these sectors made Ireland the home of their European and wider operations. 

Last week in New York, President Bill Clinton told Corporate America ‘Now is the time to invest in Ireland’

He highlighted Ireland’s exceptionally young, highly-educated, flexible and hard-working population.

Ireland is the only English-speaking member of the Eurozone and a gateway to the European single market of 500 million consumers.

More than any country we have the capacity to be the leaders, the innovators for the future.

Irish software was used on the last mission to the space station.

It was an Irish drill-bit that helped effect the rescue of the Chilean miners. 

In gaming, pharma, cloud technology, biological sciences, all the next-stage, ‘intuitive’ industries, we have the educated young people to fill the jobs…be they home grown or those that come from inward investment.

One of our most important and most closely cherished relationships is with the United States and the American people. 

Successive US administrations have played a key role in supporting our peace process.  

Ties of love and loss of family and friendship of hope and opportunity bind the American and the Irish people.

We see this in the thriving Irish communities the length and breadth of this country.

I always say it: ours are the ‘genes’ that built America.   

More recently we’ve harnessed the huge potential of our Diaspora both in the US and around the world.

 The ‘Global Irish Network’ brings together people of Irish heritage from the fields of business, culture and politics.

Not just those Irish by DNA but Irish by adoption or by simple desire.    

Many of the 70-million people in our Diaspora trace their Irish roots back to the Great Hunger of the 1840s.

Famine and hunger still lie deep in the Irish psyche.

Our humanitarian values are very much in keeping with those of the international development ideals here at the Kennedy School.

As President Clinton acknowledged last week, Ireland has a long and unbroken record of working in developing countries that stretches back to the foundation of the United Nations.

Ireland’s overseas-development aid programme, known as Irish Aid, focuses primarily on poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.

The primary focus of the programme is to support global efforts to reduce hunger. 

Indeed, even now, Ireland has committed to spending one fifth of its overseas-aid budget in support of activities that can improve access to food, and reduce malnutrition in the world’s poorest countries.

Building on our shared experience, Ireland and the US are working in partnership to lead efforts to combat under-nutrition across the globe.

Together, we jointly lead the “1,000 Days of Action to Scale Up Nutrition” for children during the critical period between pregnancy and age two. 

Ireland will assume the Presidency of the European Union.

40 years after our accession to the Common Market.

But 1,400 years since Irish monks like Gall and Columbanus rescued Europe and brought the light of Christianity to a dark continent.

Yes, from our small island in the Atlantic, Ireland effected the kind of change that saw the Father of Europe, Charlemagne, fill his court with Irish scholars with Irish thinkers. 

The kind of change from which the modern Europe was born. 

Now, the Irish Presidency of the EU, comes at a critical and challenging time for Ireland and the EU as a whole. 

But equally, it presents Ireland with an invaluable opportunity to prove why we still belong at the heart of the decision-making process in Europe. 

In our Presidency, we will embrace the concerns of the people of Europe:

Boosting Europe’s competitiveness, restoring strong and sustainable economic growth…

Creating all-important jobs. 

Just as critically, we will work to win the hearts and minds of Europe with a new urgency…

Recommitting ourselves to the WHY of Europe to the ideal and the possibility of the compassionate and dynamic Europe imagined by Monnet and Schuman and de Gasperi.

The economic and financial crisis which has gripped Europe is unparalleled in the history of our Union.

At first, Europe was slow to respond.

The lack of trust in the actions of the leaders was palpable.

So many conditions conspired to create that cliché the perfect storm.

The global crisis that led to a credit crunch.

The banking crisis that followed.

The sovereign debt crisis.

Linked to a the banking and liquidity crises

Equally there were European economies that required serious structural reform. 

When the storm broke, we found that Europe did not have the capacity to act quickly or decisively enough to stabilise the currency. 

A dangerous and persistent crisis of confidence in Europe and in the euro ensued.

I believe we’re now reaching a point where we can move beyond the crisis and get Europe back on track to growth and recovery. 

Trust is slowly being re-established.

Europe has shown the world that we are serious about protecting our currency.

A strong, stable single currency area remains a fundamental pillar of Europe’s long term economic growth and jobs strategy.

We have strengthened our budgetary rules and our ability to enforce discipline. 

Just two weeks ago, we agreed a new Treaty to further strengthen – in a verifiable manner – budgetary discipline and coordination within the euro area. 

More binding and enforceable fiscal rules are good for both Ireland and the eurozone.

Of course, this is only part of the solution. New fiscal rules will only restore confidence if they go hand-in-hand with greater efforts to support growth.

We need to do more to generate confidence and growth.

We need bigger financial firewalls to protect countries pursuing sound economic policies.

When the crisis broke, these firewalls did not exist.

 It took time for them to be established.

Initially they were restrictive in their application. 

Recently though, they’ve been made more flexible.

That flexibility is welcome.    

We also welcome the willingness to consider increasing the size of the firewalls.

The European Central Bank, an independent body, is now making increasingly creative and innovative use of its remit as it adapts to the crisis.

Ireland remains hopeful that – like the U.S Federal Reserve – as new credible fiscal rules for euro countries are agreed, the ECB can play a fuller role in combating the financial crisis.

Slowly surely the prospects of stability and recovery are emerging. 

Stricter, more coordinated budgetary discipline among the Member States, implemented alongside ample and flexible firewalls, should provide room for confidence to develop once again.

Crucially crucially we have now placed growth and job creation back at the top of the European agenda – exploiting in full the EU’s potential as the largest trading block in the world.

Something I have been arguing for since, as Taoiseach, since I became a member of the European Council.

There is now, I believe, a shared understanding that discipline and austerity – necessary as they are – will only take us so far. 

Vital recovery depends on vital growth.

And with that growth will come those much needed jobs for our people.

This is a time for real political leadership.  For governments to work  in partnership and cooperation with the people on implementing a clear plan with clear objectives.

So yes, today, in Europe and in Ireland we stand on the edge of a new frontier. 

What’s new can be frightening but equally, it can be exhilarating.

Now, Ireland and Europe must leap together into the new into the next stage of the European process.

Tomorrow, I visit the Kennedy Library.

The exhibits the documents the photographs of history lived, made and ultimately left unfinished.

Every time it gives me that strange sense of melancholy and fortitude. 

John F Kennedy has been and is a haunting presence in our lives.

Even now, whenever I see President Clinton for that split second I imagine him as the young man who once stood in the Rose Garden to meet the young president.

The torch was passed.

Today, as Ireland begins to re-assert itself in the world let me say that our torch our light burns brighter, purer, stronger than ever.

Let me say that our best and brightest days are still and always ahead. 

For a people and a country ‘ever ancient, ever new’.

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