Ambassador Collins, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I’m delighted to be here. Tonight I’m not just among friends, I’m among family. Mayo-men and Mayo-women whose lineage and stories and songs go back not just generations, but centuries.
When your people - our people - stepped off those emigrant boats they were stepping not alone into another country, but another world, another life. They came here with their most precious and fragile possessions of all - buried in among the few bits and pieces - the crucifix, the cousin’s or the sibling’s or the pal’s address, the handful of earth they brought from home. Those precious and fragile possessions were their hopes, their dreams.
Ireland has always hoped, always dreamed. But what’s more it rolls up its sleeves, gets the head down, puts in the graft. Our people did it here. Today our people are doing it at home. Because we are Irish. We are united in our courage, our talent, our faith, our tenacity. Above all, our love for our country.
Ireland endures, it is never the finished product, it is always becoming. In the last few years there’ve been more than our fair share of dark clouds. But even the worst of them has had a silver lining. Because it stirred again in our hearts the idea that we are active citizens of a republic. This time of difficulty has brought out the best in us – that we are strongest when we stand together… each in the shade, never the shadow, of the other. All over Ireland communities are rekindling that outstanding spirit of Meitheal.
Is faoi scath a cheile a mhaireann na daoine.
That Meitheal has gone beyond our shores to inhabit the hearts of the Irish across the globe. Our Diaspora are our diamond men and women. Their help, their concern, their support is by any standards, extraordinary. And tonight I thank them for it. Our spirit, our influence has been felt across the globe. We Irish have not just sought to bring change. We have been that change.
Mayo
Yesterday I spoke at the City Club of Cleveland. I spoke of Thomas Campbell from Enniskillen. Author, community leader and academic. He served as President of the City Club and was instrumental in opening its doors to women. Thomas Campbell founded the Irish American Archives Society and was deeply involved in the Irish American community of Cleveland. People like him are representative of the strong historical links between Cleveland and Ireland that live to this moment.
Today, I visited the Irish Cultural Garden, itself proof of the Irish imprint on this great this city. Tonight, we honour the spiritual bonds that connect Cleveland and County Mayo, and Achill, in particular. And the Mayo Society provides a wonderful forum for the Mayo community here in Cleveland to meet and enjoy each other’s company and support. Just as Irish communities do all over America and all over the world.
Cleveland was good for the Irish. In time, the Irish were good for Cleveland. Terrified immigrants became strong and confident workers. They educated their children to become teachers, doctors, members of the police and the fire service, labour leaders. Many of the men and women arrived here knowing only Irish. Our emigrants, immigrants, worked long and they worked hard. And the people who made it and settled in America didn’t just build the American economy, they kept families and communities together with the ‘parcel’ and love and hope sent home.
We owe those generations an enormous debt for the financial contribution they made to a fledgling State as it found its feet. We also owe the United States an enormous debt for enabling them to make that contribution. For many the ‘American Wake’ became the American Dream. Others were less fortunate and in Philadelphia I met the Irish community who are doing such excellent work in supporting them.
The Irish-American relationship is more than one of friendship. It’s one of family. And in times of difficulty family stands together. America has stood by Ireland in its recent difficulties. We are now making steady progress towards economic sovereignty though the period ahead remains challenging.
Economy
Ireland has been on a difficult economic journey in recent years, but we are now moving steadily in the right direction. The hard sacrifices that are being made by the Irish people are delivering results. We have implemented €23 billion of measures to cut Government borrowing. That is over $7,000 for every man, woman and child in the country - more than any other country in the world.
Government borrowing is now falling steadily, and we have beaten all the deficit targets we have set for ourselves. For a small open, export-driven economy like Ireland, cutting Government borrowing and supporting job creation are not mutually exclusive. More employment in Ireland has come not from Government spending, but from creating an environment that fosters more exports and investment.
We’ve had a 20% improvement in cost competitiveness viz-a-vis our trading partners in just 3 years. Despite the global economic slowdown, Irish exports are at all-time highs. The flow of foreign direct investment is also at record levels, most notably in areas such as technology, pharmaceuticals and financial services.
Jobs that were outsourced to low cost countries five years ago are now being brought home again. Whilst unemployment remains too high, private sector employers have been adding jobs to the economy since the beginning of 2011. Our balance of payments has returned to surplus. From an unprecedented recession in 2008-10, the overall economy has returned to modest growth.
The Irish government has an economic strategy and performance that enjoys the confidence of our official creditors, the public and, increasingly, of the financial markets. Yields on Irish Government bonds have fallen from over 14% last year to below 5% today.
But we are not complacent about the challenges ahead. Our cost base in both the public and private sectors needs to be further lowered. Other countries are challenging our competitive position on business taxation - a position that I can promise this audience that Ireland will vigorously defend. Our banking system, while stabilised, needs to be further strengthened to finance a robust economic recovery. We will resolve these challenges with the same determination that has brought us back from the edge.
Ireland has learnt the right lessons from the crisis - that sustainable jobs and prosperity cannot come from public or private indebtedness, but only from hard work, thrift, enterprise and entrepreneurship. We do not want to be seen as the best hope of the eurozone countries that have been bailed out, but rather as a bright light for the entire European and global economies.
For Ireland to be successful in our economic renewal we need to see economic stability and a return to growth and job creation in Europe, most particularly in the euro zone. Since the crisis broke, European leaders have taken a number of critical decisions. We’ve put in place the mechanisms needed to support countries that get into difficulties. We have adopted tougher, tighter rules to ensure budgetary discipline. In June, we took several crucial decisions which we are now in the process of implementing.
Irish-US relationship
A recent report on the Irish-US Economic Relationship showed that Ireland was the third most preferred European destination for US foreign direct investment outflows last year, accounting for 30.5 billion US dollars.
The ties that bind Ireland and the United States together continue to become stronger and we must remember that trade between our two countries is a two way street. The activities of Irish firms in the US remains substantial, only 11 other countries in the world have a higher investment stake in the US than Ireland. Indeed, Ireland’s FDI stock in the US was worth around 25 billion US Dollars in 2011. Irish affiliates employ approximately 120,000 US workers, with a corresponding figure of around 107,000 Irish workers employed by US affiliates.
Our 12½% corporation tax rate remains – and will continue to remain – at the heart of our strategy to attract foreign direct investment. One of the big jobs announcements made already this year was by Allergen, a Healthcare company in Mayo, which was great news for the county. This included a new Biologics manufacturing facility in Westport. As you may know Westport already had a great boost this year when it was voted best place to live in Ireland in a national competition run by the Irish Times.
Just recognition that there really is no better place than the West of Ireland!
Trade is a vitally important engine of growth and developing relations with the European Union’s key strategic partners, including the United States, will be a another real priority for us. I strongly believe that agreement on a comprehensive trade agreement between the United States and the European Union would take this relationship onto a new level and I will be aiming to make as much progress towards this goal as possible as Ireland assumes the Presidency of the European Union in January. This will be our seventh Presidency and probably our most challenging. But we have a track record of running highly effective Presidencies and this time will be no different.
Diaspora and the
Gathering
But next year is not only the year of the Presidency it is also the year of the Gathering, a very exciting initiative to welcome visitors to our shores. The Gathering 2013 will be a year-long celebration of Irish culture, music, dance, literature, food and sport, showcasing the best of Ireland. We hope to reach out to the millions of people who claim ancestral links with Ireland, as well as the many millions more who feel linked by friendship, business, education, interest or simply an affection for what Ireland has given to the world.
There will be a packed calendar of local events and festivals country wide. I know there have been meetings in Mayo to discuss plans for the Gathering and a great range of ideas have emerged. Registered Gatherings for Mayo so far include:
- music, walking and salmon festivals in the county.
- the Love in Loom project which invites you to weave a thread on a special Gathering 2013 hand loom in the Foxford Woollen Mills.
- a film and cultural festival in honour of Grace Kelly.
- a reunion for past pupils of the Claremorris Rural Home Economics College.
- as well as Gatherings of the Moran, Burke, Gavin and McNicholas clans.
So if this has inspired you I would encourage you to come back to Mayo in 2013 to join the celebrations or even come up with your own idea for a Gathering in Mayo in 2013. There will never be a better time to come home.
We have had some big events in Ireland this year already: the finale of the Volvo Ocean race which attracted 20,000 people to Galway in June. And only a few short weeks ago I was proud to welcome over 30,000 proud supporters of Navy and Notre Dame for the Emerald Isle Classic. I am told this may have been the biggest ever mass movement of US citizens overseas for a sporting event. I was at the game myself and it was a wonderful exhibition of athleticism, colour and celebration. And it provided a great opportunity for us to showcase the best of Ireland to those wonderful travelling supporters.
But these events were only dress rehearsals for the Gathering so make sure you don’t miss out. So before I go, let me say this. When you come home for The Gathering I want you to go out to Blacksod, or the Minaun Cliffs, or to the black sands of Keem Bay and think of your people who left Ireland for a better life, some of them centuries ago. That you exist at all is a testament to their sacrifice, their success. And as you look out into the Atlantic remember this. That the Irish journey is a journey of transformation.
On my first day as Taoiseach I spoke of the philosophy that says our horizons are never fixed. We take them with us as we go. And because we do, we are never done.
For Ireland our best days will always be ahead.