Tánaiste, Ministers, Ladies and Gentlemen.
On a recent visit to Brussels I was told the story of a French marshal who one day asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected because it would take too long to grow - it would be a hundred years before it came to maturity. ‘In that case’, said the marshal, ‘You’d better hurry! Plant it this morning’.
This morning we are planting something that will help define Ireland’s global outlook for our own time and the generations to come.
It is a continuation of a dream for Ireland that has motivated Irish men and women for centuries.
When the Gaelic League was founded one writer argued that it was not enough to be good citizens of Ireland. We must aspire to be ‘good citizens of the world’.
Robert Emmet spoke about ‘Ireland taking her place among the nations of the world’.
And, that same vision inspired Michael Collins to set out his ambitions for Ireland in 1922 shortly before he died. He said our outlook is new, but our national aim is the same. It is to find a path to freedom based on our country becoming ‘a shining light in a dark world’.
Forty years later, Seán Lemass that great Taoiseach set out a path to prosperity. It involved, he said, recognising that ‘events in all parts of the world, and new ideas and developments everywhere, can be of direct and immediate interest to our own people’.
His vision was of an Ireland playing a role in greater Europe, in the United Nations, in the world. As he said, ‘Irish people are citizens of the world as well as Ireland’. Our future lies there.
With the launch of Global Ireland 2025 we are setting-out our path for global citizenship. Today we follow in the footsteps of our forbears by showing how we will engage as citizens of the world in the 21st century.
Last summer, on a visit to Toronto, shortly after I became Taoiseach, I set-out an ambition to double our global footprint. The concept was a simple one. I wanted to double our impact by doing things differently doing more and doing it better.
- opening up new embassies and consulates around the world;
- expanding some of the ones that we have already;
- investing more in our agencies such as the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, Bord Bia, and Tourism Ireland,
- sharing our cultural offering around the world.
- Build new air and sea connections, and;
- Welcoming more International students to Ireland.
There is an urgency to this.
The reasons are self-evident.
Technological change is transforming lives and driving change in every corner of the world. Geopolitical and economic power is shifting south and east.
The global trading environment is experiencing a period of turbulence and volatility. And closer to home, our nearest neighbour and largest trading partner is preparing to leave the European Union.
I believe, the challenges we face demand comprehensive multilateral responses. It is the only way to make a significant difference on issues such as climate change, security, taxation in the new digital world and migration.
We are at a moment in world history where we can turn inwards and become irrelevant, or we open ourselves to opportunities and possibilities on a global scale that we never had before.
We grasp this opportunity to open ourselves with both hands because we believe we have much to contribute to the world. We have a role to play and this is our time.
So, we will soon launch our bid to win a seat on the UN Security Council beginning in 2021. We want to play an even greater role in international affairs and use our moral standing to work to achieve a world of laws, where human rights and freedoms are protected, peace is defended, free trade and free markets are promoted and there is social justice in the world.
We should be proud of the role we have played on the world stage. It inspires us to do more.
Today, I pay a special tribute to our diplomats, officials, military personnel, Gardaí and other public servants who serve abroad on international assignments. They promote Ireland’s national interests, protect our reputation, develop new business opportunities, and help the international community to deal with regional and global problems.
At any given moment, we have over 1,000 public servants and over 600 defence forces and security personal serving abroad. Thank you.
In a few moments, the Tánaiste will talk you through the different aspects of our new approach to engaging with the world.
To conclude, I want to say something about one important feature of our strategy: culture and heritage. How do so many people from around the world first learn about us?
- our music and our dance,
- our art and our poetry,
- our plays and our films,
- our sport;
These are the window through which most of the world sees us for the first time.
The sharing of culture is the sharing of our identity, the sharing of our soul.
To give just one example. I remember a few years ago the story of how the Chinese prime minister interrupted a high-level discussion with the then Taoiseach to discuss his love of Ulysses. Our cultural heritage opened doors long before we were able to travel through them.
Today we are on a mission to establish deeper connections with our Diaspora around the world, and share our heritage with different cultures and peoples.
We will learn as much from theirs.
We will also connect with the ‘reverse diaspora’, those who have studied, lived or worked here for a while and who have returned home to other countries, perhaps with their Irish-born children. We want them to retain their links and their positive connections with Ireland.
Global Ireland 2025 will help us to bring our culture and heritage to a wider audience through a 7-year programme of international promotion of Irish arts and culture. This will allow us to appoint new cultural attachés in cities such as New York, Paris, Berlin, Beijing and Los Angeles so we have ambassadors for our culture and language.
In 1916, one of the most important years in Irish history, the poet AE prophesised that when our hour had come we would have something to give to the world.
I believe this is our hour. Winning our independence was not the end, it was a beginning. Today we can be a voice for peace, multilateralism, free trade, free markets, security, sustainability and social justice in the world.
One hundred years ago we were a small island on the periphery of Western Europe.
In the next one hundred we will be a nation at the heart of the common European home we helped to build, an island at the centre of the world.
Thank you.