Taoiseach's Speeches Archive 1998
A detailed discussion of Economic Co-ordination formed the bulk of the first working session which followed, while issues such as Agenda 2000, Justice and Home Affairs, Common Foreign and Security Policy, Subsidiarity and the Internal Market were examined on Friday afternoon.
The sweeping tax reforms introduced in this Budget allow us to target help at those who most need it. We are doing not only what our economy but what our society requires at this time. The jobs crisis today consists of the fact that we have thousands of jobs that need filling. This Budget is about ensuring that we have people to fill them. The live register, which has already fallen dramatically by 32,000 over the last 12 months, will be further slashed, so that in 1999 it could plunge below 200,000 for the first time since 1983.
As we in Government go about our work in the fields of economic and social policy, as we pursue our political and economic interests abroad, and in particular, as we build upon the achievements and challenges of the Belfast Agreement, an important defining principle underlying our actions must be the protection and promotion of all human rights. As a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, the Universal Declaration acts both as a guide for us, and a benchmark against which we can measure the progress achieved, in making universal observance of human rights a reality.
What we are launching today is hopefully just the start of a special initiative to encourage schools on both sides of the Border to use ICTs to work together and learn about each other. To start the scheme, a total of 200 computers will be given to 50 schools; 25 North and 25 South. The schools will be provided with all the relevant links and supported access to the Internet. Working in pairs, they will be given joint projects to develop across the next school year.
Northern Ireland, once a barrier to understanding, represents now in terms of the Good Friday Agreement a shared determination to succeed. In the past, despite co-ordinated entry and shared partnership, we appeared to have different interests and a different outlook regarding the European Union. Today, I sense a greater convergence, now that the grip of ideology, both for and against European integration, has been loosened.
Republicanism is always about opening rather than slamming the door on the future. It is about moving on, neither handcuffed to our history, nor heedlessly fugitive from it. Republicanism is always - and only - about how to create a human society fit for our children to live in.
This initiative guarantees that the Government is committed to research and development and will implement a real partnership by harnessing the interest and goodwill of the private sector. This initiative gives a reality to a vision of the future which I have addressed on many occasions and which has already been adopted by the Government in its partnership approach to education, training and enterprise.
The inauguration of the Memorial Peace Park to all the Irishmen who died in the First World War by President McAleese and Queen Elizabeth this afternoon at Messines, where the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division fought side by side, is an important symbolic moment of reconciliation in our history.
This will make Citibank's Dublin Centre the largest back office and shared services operation in Ireland, with a total of 2,300 staff. It will be located at Citibank's new 270,000 square foot office building currently well advanced in construction, at the I.F.S.C. in Dublin. This building is due for completion in November next year. Meanwhile Citibank is operating it's processing centre from Fleming House, in Dublin 4.
Over the last decade the NESC strategy reports have played an invaluable role in bringing together thinking from a wide range of fields, into a coherent and easily-grasped understanding of the Irish economy and society. The development of this understanding by the members of the Council, was crucial in shaping a strategy, around which it has been possible to build a very broad social consensus, spanning all the social partners, and, indeed, practically all of the main actors in society.