Comments by Minister Martin at the CEB National Enterprise Awards

Comments by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin at the Presentation of the CEB National Enterprise Awards, on Thursday 10 ^th November in the Mansion House

Lord Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to ‘do the honours’ here tonight in presenting the CEB National Enterprise Awards for 2005. Events like this are fitting occasions for celebration and for pride. It is so heartening to see the spirit of enterprise and entrepreneurship so visibly alive and thriving at local levels all over the country. This is my first time to present these awards and let me say, at the outset, how impressed and pleased I am with the capacity and inventiveness of our business leaders to conceive, create and grow such splendid and diverse projects as are showcased here this evening. I have been briefed on the detail of each project entry and am gratified to know that the wider interests of our economy at large are being well supported with a throughput of business generation and expansions that will continue to feed its progress into the future.

In a very real sense every entrant in this awards ceremony is a winner. Each of you has already come through the arduous and highly competitive journey at individual county or city level. Not only that, but you have all proved the strength and worth of your projects against the exacting criteria under which they have been evaluated and judged, namely,

financial robustness

quality design

propensity to innovate

capacity for market success and export sales

potential for employment creation and maintenance

conformity with environmental standards and principles

potential for sustainable long-term viability.

I therefore extend my warmest congratulations to each and every one of you and I delight in sharing in your celebrations tonight.

Of course, the real objective of a celebration like tonight’s is not simply to clap ourselves on the back in self-praise of the successes we have accomplished or the competitions we have won. This is a public celebration, a public showcasing, of the fruits of real, living entrepreneurial hard-graft by men and women, young and not so young, who toil tirelessly and unseen in our cities, towns and rural areas in pursuit of visionary economic opportunity. Tonight you are all held up not merely as models of success but as sources of inspiration to other would-be entrepreneurs who would follow in your footsteps and emulate your achievements. Our celebration tonight, therefore, is important in raising public awareness of the need for entrepreneurial action and innovation in our economy and in demonstrating the high, but attainable, standards which successful performance and high achievement demand.

Why is entrepreneurship so important for our economy? Well, for our economy to sustain the growth performances it has achieved over the past decade or so and to maintain the consequential high living standards to which our citizens have now become accustomed we rely, more than ever, on a constant throughput of new business creations which are innovation and export driven, which provide the products and services demanded by a technologically sophisticated marketplace and which, above all, are competitive and internally sustaining. Entrepreneurship is vital to the realisation of the Government’s vision and policies for continued economic growth and expanded wealth production. It is vital, too, in an EU context wherein it is key to delivery of the Lisbon Agenda which seeks to position the EU as the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy on the globe. Ireland, as a modern economy whose development has derived so much benefit from EU financial transfers over the past three decades, must now play its proportionate role in proactively supporting and advancing the plans for EU growth, innovation, competitiveness and employment under the Lisbon Agenda. Our EU partners expect and demand no less of us: we must deliver.

I would like to acknowledge, and express my appreciation of, the well-co-ordinated administrative and logistical effort of the CEBs in organising the annual enterprise award schemes in their various operational localities and in the staging of this grand national final showpiece. Tonight’s winning projects are but a small representation of the many good quality business projects which are supported by the CEBs. Moreover, they are a fine, visible, public example of responsible and productive use of State monies in support of sound business development and employment creation. Promotional and award events like tonight’s are important elements in the mix of actions and interventions delivered by the CEBs in cultivation of an enterprise culture at local levels. The development of local environments which are conducive to enterprise creation and which foster, support and reward entrepreneurial effort is a core mission of the CEBs – one which they pursue with especial vigour and enthusiasm. The CEBs have developed many programmes of action towards this end, some of which are client-specific while others have a general focus on training and education for enterprise. I am sure many of you have already benefited from such programmes and will be able to testify to their relevance and effectiveness. Let me urge you, as your businesses grow and expand, to maintain close working relations with your local CEB: you will find it ever-ready to be of service in assisting your development needs.

In conclusion I wish to thank the National Enterprise Awards organisers for their hard work and professionalism in arranging tonight’s programme. I would like to say a special ‘thank you’ to Oisin Geoghegan, CEO of Fingal CEB, who, in his capacity as Chairman of the Enterprise Promotion Committee, has played a leading role in all the preparatory action. My special thanks – and sympathy too! – to our panel of adjudicators whose task cannot have been an easy one. Once again, I offer my congratulations to each and every participant and my best wishes to them for long-lasting success with the business projects which they have created.

ENDS

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