Address by Tánaiste Mary Coughlan at the opening of the McGill Summer School

European context

I am not sure that Patrick McGill would recognise the Europe that he fought for in the Great War. It has been transformed. Small nations are free and they have a voice. We have greater shared economic interests than ever before. We have less visible borders and more trade. We have a greater cultural understanding of each other and a common agenda on many issues including climate change. Perhaps the most important difference that McGill would point to has been continuous peace and stability for over 60 years. We know only too well in this part of the island what a gift that can be. The European Union has played a central role in ensuring that stability. It has ensured the prosperity and growth of countries like Ireland. It has ensured a balanced approach to the growth of regions which must overcome physical and economic challenges, including Donegal and the North West.

Have we got everything we ever wanted from the EU? No. But are we better off overall as an economy and as a people from being part of the European project? Overwhelmingly, yes in my view.

As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, I believe that never before was the competitiveness agenda more crucially important to Ireland's trajectory. Never was it more important to the future hopes of our children and the generations to come. We must continue to maximise the benefits of the internal market. Exports must be prioritised, even against the background of a strong euro. Exchange rates vary and there will come a time when other currencies rally. We must be ready to take that tide by not giving up in the meantime on identifying new markets, services and products. We must drive competitiveness at every opportunity. Competitiveness in all its aspects - labour costs, technology use, management expertise, reskilling, innovation and productivity. As Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment I will be relentlessly pursuing each item on the competitiveness agenda in the coming months. My colleagues in Government will be doing likewise in collateral areas such as infrastructure, broadband, education and transport.

Economic outlook

Perhaps Patrick McGill would have agreed with the saying that generals always fight the last battle, not the next one. We need to avoid that trap. Certain commentators are advising us to set our economic clocks back to the 1980's. This is not the 80's. It would be a fatal mistake to think we are facing the same challenges. The economy is profoundly different now. The challenges might look similar but we need deeper analysis of the problems not just an acceptance that the symptoms look familiar. Our responses must be imaginative and creative and not based on old remedies. We now know the economic backdrop against which the Government must operate. We now know the scale of the challenges we are facing - and this Government will face them head on.

The Taoiseach and Minister for Finance have already set out their stall in relation to the corrective measures that will be taken. It is a prudent, targeted reduction in spending in certain areas. It is designed to minimise the impact on the vulnerable in our society. It is intended to minimise the impact on the productive aspects of our spending programmes. That is the correct approach. It is also a measured response. The Minister for Finance has already indicated that he will strongly resist the temptation to borrow excessively, as was called for in some quarters.

Remember, we have had a decade of extraordinary levels of growth. It was as if Ireland's pent up potential was unleashed. The post war growth that other European countries experienced was not Ireland's story in the 1950's and early 60's. The oil shocks of the 70's pegged us back again. Then, coinciding with us taking our place centre stage in Europe, we began to lay the groundwork for a fundamental change over the decades that followed. Those changes became manifest in the so-called "celtic tiger" years. During that time we had a dramatic expansion in domestic demand, which fuelled particular sectors of the economy, including construction. That has now fallen back to more normal levels but our economy continues to be strong and dynamic. We have a very low level of public debt. It is down from 53% of GDP in 1998 to 25% at the end of 2007, 14 % in net debt terms. We have very flexible markets. We have a low burden of taxation. And we have over two million at work. Now is not the time to fight old battles. We must ensure that the economic challenges that lie ahead are met with fresh, responsive policies.

Social Partnership

In this regard, Social Partnership is also challenged with renewal. Now, more than ever, we need a shared understanding across Government, employers, workers and wider society. It should be a shared understanding of both the challenges and the solutions. It would be unrealistic to expect full agreement on solutions, as there are many profound differences between the Social Partners as to how the economy and society should work. That is to be expected. And it is not new, either. It has always been the case that social partnership has been based on negotiation, rather than on inherent consensus. However, we need to find those common spaces within which compromises can be built.

Earlier this month, the Taoiseach, Minister for Finance and I met with the Social Partners who were gathered in Government Buildings in plenary session. I said to the Partners then, that when it comes to "wish lists", béidh lá eile. Let us do what we can now to take us through the challenging period of transition we now face, and take stock then. Let us see what contribution Social Partnership can make now to competitiveness. And, as I said at the plenary, I believe it is an important ingredient in competitiveness in its fullest sense.

I believe for example that competitiveness and decent employment standards go hand in hand. Patrick McGill might have agreed. He was someone after all who wrote movingly about the lot of the navvie and the bleakness of life for workers in that era. We have come a long way since then. This Government does not wish to see competitive advantage gained at the expense of the dignity, health, safety and fair treatment of workers.

I was particularly pleased, for example, that last month we were finally able to make significant progress on the Temporary Agency Worker Directive. It is another example, in a long list, of the contribution of the European Union to equality and employment rights. Having been stalled for many years, the Irish Government was able to support text that took account of the Irish industrial relations system. Central to our concerns was that the Directive would recognise the tradition of Social Partnership which now exists. This has been done and under the Directive, it will be possible to build in derogations and flexibilities if the Social Partners reach an agreement.

With this further empowerment of the Social Partners, comes additional responsibilities. The Social Partners must continue to strive for a balance - not just in the area of temporary agency workers but on the overall range of issues facing the labour market and the economy. More than ever, consumers and markets need certainty and confidence. Our citizens and communities want the social progress and cohesion we have achieved in recent years to be maintained. I am sure that, as they have done in the past, the Social Partners will step up to the plate. In doing so, the question of achieving a fair deal must be foremost in everyone's mind.

We face challenging times. The decisions we make now will influence our economic and social progress for some years to come. But we have been here before. Someone drew my attention to a quote attributed to Brian Friel where he said: “I would like to write a play that would capture the peculiar spiritual and indeed, material, flux that this country is in at the moment.” Although it seems ready-made for 2008, that quote was from 1970. We can only hope that Brian finds the current state of affairs equally inspiring and, through his sublime talents, can help us to better understand the dynamics of the forces guiding our future direction.

Festival of Friel

Fittingly, the theme of this year’s event is “A festival of Friel”, a tribute to a playwright whose reputation stretches far beyond the shores of his adopted Donegal, his native Tyrone and Derry City where he lived, taught and wrote for many years.

When initially invited here this evening, I began to reflect on Brian Friel…..the person, the playwright and my own recollections of the man. While very few of us can profess to having a fraction of his literary acumen, Brian and I do have something in common as we both entered politics in the same year, that being 1987. Suffice to say, Brian turned to other things a short time later, the pen was wielded again at the expense of politics.

I’m not sure if we can trace the influence of the Irish Seanad in his work where he served from 1987 to 1989! However, there would have been a political influence from his father, Paddy Friel who served as a borough councillor in Derry for a time.

Brian Friel is rightly regarded as one of our greatest playwrights. His work is performed on stages right across the globe and his plays have won numerous awards, both nationally and internationally. When you mention “Dancing at Lughnasa”, arguably his most acclaimed play to date, the influence of Donegal and most particularly our host town this evening, Glenties, is enormous. They’ll tell you very proudly in these parts that Hollywood visited Glenties in 1998, when Meryl Streep and other celebrities came to St Columba’s Comprehensive school at the other end of town for the world premiere of the film adaptation of “Dancing at Lughnasa.”

The fictional landscape of Ballybeg which surfaces regularly in Friel’s work is in the writer’s own words, “a village of the mind.” It is widely accepted that Glenties provided the inspiration for Ballybeg. Indeed in 1981, Brian Friel stated in the programme for the MacGill Summer school, that “Glenties occupies a large portion of my affections and permanently shaped my imagination.”

For those of you who have been here before, it’s quite understandable how the unspoiled landscape - with its rolling green glens, dark bogs and racing rivers - could inspire and shape a young writer’s embryonic ideas.

Brian spent many summer holidays here in Glenties of course where his mother, Mary McLoone, had worked as a postmistress before getting married. The McLoone’s house was quite close to where we are this evening, beside the old railway station. It was a welcoming abode which was home to a family of five girls and two boys. His grandparent’s house was to become a place very close to Brian’s heart.

I should mention before I conclude that the Government is conscious of its responsibilities to ensure that arts and culture are adequately supported. Through Minister Cullen and Minister Mansergh, the Government will ensure that arts and culture do not become marginalised, even as we face into more difficult circumstances - a time when arguably, the arts become even more important to us as a society. I think it is fair to say that our record to date has been good: we have had historically high levels of funding for the Arts and Culture sector in recent years.

To Brian Friel finally, elected a Saoi in 2006 by the members of Aosdána and presented with a gold torc by President McAleese, your work has brought us all great joy. It has brought joy to the actors who have participated in your creations in relishing the challenges of your stage directions and character development. Your work has brought great rewards to those who have studied and reviewed your acts and scenes. More importantly perhaps, your work has simply brought many hours of special pleasure to those who appreciate a Brian Friel play at home in a book or in the atmosphere of the theatre.

Thank you all very much for your attention this evening and may you enjoy every moment of the Patrick MacGill Summer School and Arts week, 2008, appropriately entitled “A Festival of Friel.”

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