Address by Mr Noel Treacy T.D.,Minister for Science Technology & Commerce,on the Occasion of Presentation of Certificates for the Experience Ireland Programmeat FÁS Centre City Training Centre, Jervis Street, Dublin 1.on Thursday, 6TH July, 2000 at 6pm

I am absolutely delighted to be here this evening, to present Certificates to the Experience Ireland Programme Participants. I hope that you all have enjoyed your stay here in Ireland, as much as I enjoyed both of my visits to Newfoundland. I hope to be able return there in the future. The first thing that strikes anybody who looks at Ireland and Newfoundland are the similarities between our two lands. We are both located off the coasts of large continents. We have both had to overcome the geographic disadvantage of a peripheral location and we have both experienced the ravages of high unemployment and emigration.

Of course, our links go much deeper than that. We are bound by strong ties of history and common ancestry. Over 40% of the people of Newfoundland and Labrador, including your Premier, Mr. Brian Tobin, are of Irish descent. This is the principal reason that a Memorandum of Understanding, between the Governments of Ireland and Newfoundland, was signed in Dublin, on the 8th November 1996. At that time, seventeen (17) of your local companies visited Dublin, in one of your Provinces, largest ever trade missions. In April of last year, Premier Tobin led a further delegation of fourteen (14) companies to Ireland and met with our Taoiseach, Mr. Bertie Ahern T.D. Last October, my Government colleague Mr. Tom Kitt T.D., our Minister for International Trade, led an Irish trade mission of some thirty (30) companies, to Newfoundland & Labrador.

As mentioned already, I have had the honour of visiting Newfoundland on two occasions. The first time was in September 1998. At that time I was most impressed with your Country’s expertise in the area of distance education and telemedicine. On my return, I initiated a joint venture between the West of Ireland Institutes of Technology and Operation Online so that SMEs here could avail of various training modules using the Internet as a delivery mechanism.

My most recent visit was in April last. The primary purpose of that visit was to launch the Opportunities Ireland Recruitment Fair in St. John’s, at the request of FAS. I also took the opportunity to visit some of your leading high technology companies, which specialise in the e-business sector. I am pleased that one of the companies we visited has recently decided to establish here in Ireland, while others are in the process of establishing joint ventures with Irish partners.

In September next, I have arranged for a group of Chief Executive Officers of Local Enterprise Boards to go to Newfoundland to examine the possibility a joint venture in the area of e-commerce for micro enterprises. Hopefully, their visit will be as successful as my earlier visits.

One of the major Objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding is to develop close co-operation and enhanced awareness of our respective business, industry and cultural sectors. This is part of our overall desire, to enhance and develop, appropriate and complementary activities, which are consistent with the needs and priorities of economic and cultural development. The Joint Memorandum sets out a number of mechanisms, for achieving this Objective, through possible joint ventures, or other co-operative arrangements.

Therefore, I am delighted to witness further tangible progress, in relation to this Memorandum. My personal experience of Newfoundland, is that it is a good place in which to do business.

I have consistently referred to the fact, that both Ireland and Newfoundland, have so much in common and we have a similar goal, in trying to maintain sustainable economic growth, which can be achieved, through increased productivity, across all sectors of our respective economies.

The renewed links between Ireland and Newfoundland & Labrador are already delivering concrete results. Several companies from Ireland and from Newfoundland and Labrador have formed business partnerships, which will yield tangible benefits for both sides.

As you are probably aware, the primary aim of the Experience Ireland Programme, is to create international work experience for young people, who have demonstrated a high degree of readiness for work, but who might not be able to access international work experience, through traditional programmes and institutions. In recent times, an important Objective for FÁS, our National Training and Employment Authority, was to provide a range of programmes and services, for school leavers, which would help them enter the labour market. This has involved a major investment programme in community training workshops, and improved literacy and numeracy programmes, in these workshops. It also included strengthened career guidance and advocacy services.

To assist all of those, who did not wish to avail of full time education or training, FÁS established part-time and work-based learning options.

And so it is in this context, that FÁS became involved with Experience Ireland. FÁS has successfully developed and participated in similar programmes with European partners, in the past. All of these programmes have a strong work experience related element.

The Experience Ireland Programme, creates work experience in the three areas, that are the focus of the Irish/Newfoundland Business Partnership Agreement – environmental, cultural and high-technology - so that interns will be able to use the skills and knowledge gained, through overseas placements, to complement the efforts of local companies, aiming at the Irish market.

The skills and knowledge gained from the Experience Ireland Programme, will allow interns the opportunity to experience the similarities and differences in business and cultural practices. It will also provide the kind of hands-on experience, that employers will value, upon your return to the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The first Group completed the Experience Ireland Programme last year and has returned to Newfoundland. I understand that this inaugural group found the programme to be both positive and useful. All of them are now in permanent full time employment. In recent years Ireland has been able to overcome its geographic isolation, as improved telecommunications and the internet, increasingly render physical distance irrelevant. Newfoundland and Labrador is also exploiting these developments to its advantage.

For two years running, Newfoundland and Labrador has had the fastest GDP growth of any Canadian Province and employment growth is at twice the Canadian average.

Unemployment, while still high, is falling and population decline, has recently been reversed. I will now present the Certificates to this year’s Graduates and I wish you all every success in your lives and future careers, in the exciting years ahead.