Thank you for your kind invitation to speak to this distinguished gathering tonight.
I am delighted to see so many friends here this evening. It is a very encouraging sign of the changed times we are all living in.
At this pivotal moment for our island and for the world, I want to reflect on the themes of Achievement, of Hope and of Opportunity.
It is both important and timely to reflect on the great achievements of this generation.
In doing so, we can mine a great seam of hope and of optimism for the future.
And we can see more clearly the unprecedented opportunities now before us - opportunities that can enable us to translate that hope into success, and that optimism into a secure peace and prosperity for our children.
These are certainly, as your Chairman has said, extremely challenging times.
We face a range of intertwined and complex economic difficulties that are perhaps unparalleled, certainly since the 1930s.
None of us is immune from the effects of this global economic crisis.
All of us have a shared responsibility to put our shoulder to the wheel in our efforts to tackle it.
The situation in the South is very difficult at the moment, as you are well aware.
We face a very difficult budgetary situation.
We are suffering from adverse exchange rate movements - which I suppose, in this room at least, brings to mind the old proverb about an ill wind !
As a modern, globalised economy we cannot escape the impact of the international downturn and the contraction in world trade.
And we are also tackling a major upheaval in the global financial order, as well as the problems faced by our domestic banking system.
These problems, of course, have significant cross-border implications. They have been the subject of recent discussions with our colleagues from the Northern Ireland Executive in the North/South Ministerial Council.
In the South, as in the North, we are fighting back.
We are determined to tackle our problems head on.
My Government has a clear and comprehensive strategy for dealing with the impact of the economic crisis and to take advantage of the international recovery when it comes.
We are addressing the banking situation in order to restore credibility and confidence and to get credit flowing.
We are attacking the gap in our public finances by increasing revenue and cutting spending, in a planned way, over the next five years.
We are protecting as many jobs as we can and restoring competitiveness to the way we do business, supporting viable but vulnerable enterprises.
And we are investing in those who are out of work so that they can return to employment as soon as possible.
We have already taken significant decisions to correct the public finances and reform the banking system.
We will take more decisions - difficult but necessary decisions - in the next two weeks.
Achievement
The island of Ireland has faced enormous challenges before.
We have faced challenges far greater than those we face now - famine, emigration, civil conflict.
We have overcome them.
As we will overcome those we face today.
We are not starting from the same place as in the past.
We have enormous achievements to build on - achievements that will stand to us in the difficult period ahead.
The first of these is peace.
In recent years, we have seen the vast potential of the Good Friday Agreement begin to be fully realised.
We have found a balanced constitutional settlement, which respects the aspirations of all and protects the rights of all.
We have built a new democratic framework for the relationships on this island and between these islands. The institutions are now operating as the people intended when they were established.
We are actively developing co-operation on both the North/South and East/West dimensions in an unprecedented way.
Since taking office, I have been honoured to lead the Irish Government delegation at meetings of both the North/South Ministerial Council and the British-Irish Council.
Those meetings have helped us to deepen our friendships.
And they have also enabled us to develop practical co-operation that benefits all of those that we represent.
Most of all, they have helped us build the unity of democratic purpose which has seen us through the trials and tests of recent weeks.
The other great achievement of the recent past on this island, both North and South, is a level of economic development that we could not have dreamt of in previous decades.
The current economic crisis has dented that prosperity, but it has not destroyed it.
In the South, we have seen some significant economic setbacks.
But we are still building from a much stronger base.
The annual GNP of the southern economy is projected to fall significantly in 2009 - to below 150 billion euros.
However, to put that in a longer-term perspective, the corresponding figure in 1995 was around 50 billion euros.
We are the 10th largest investor in the United States, with Irish companies creating almost as many jobs there as US companies create here.
To date, over 1,000 multinational companies have set up in the South and they include many of the top leaders in information technology and software, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, life sciences and international financial services.
Start-up business activity is one of the strongest in Europe. 300 new high tech companies have been established over the last four years.
These companies are among the key drivers of our export growth and represent the future for Ireland as a knowledge-based export-led economy.
The Celtic Tiger was not a mirage.
It was very real indeed and its positive impact is visible all around us.
It is visible in the new roads and transport systems, such as the Luas in Dublin and the inter-urban motorway system that is still being built and will be completed next year.
It is measured in close to a million extra jobs that were created, many of which thankfully still exist.
It is living and breathing in the new educational and research facilities on our higher education campuses, where the products and services of the future are being developed each and every day.
It is seen in the successful companies who are represented here tonight, and who continue to compete and to succeed here in the North, across the island and around the world.
And, most importantly of all, our recent achievements remain manifest in our people.
We still benefit from the huge resource that is their energy, their leading-edge skills, their knowledge, their ambition and their determination to succeed.
We now know, from our personal and our community experience, that we can compete at the highest international level and win.
That is a lesson that will not be forgotten as we strive to overcome the current crisis.
That essential capacity of our people will be at the very heart of our recovery.
Hope
Tragically, there are still some people in our midst who do not want to move forward to a better future.
They want to drag us back to a bitter and divided past.
In recent weeks, in Antrim and in Craigavon, they struck a blow against the democratic wishes of the people of this island, North and South.
It was a blow that was felt keenly by everyone who loves this island and who wants a better future for all of our children.
Most of all, it was felt by the innocent victims of the murderers and by their families, friends and colleagues.
Your First Minister and your deputy First Minister have spoken for everybody in Northern Ireland, in their clear and passionate rejection of this attack on the peace process.
They have given leadership of the highest order and have demonstrated the capacity, maturity and stability of the democratic institutions.
I stand shoulder to shoulder with Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness.
I stand shoulder to shoulder with the leaders of every democratic political party in these islands - in Stormont, in Leinster House and in Westminster.
I stand with Prime Minister Gordon Brown, with President Barack Obama and with friends of Ireland all around the world.
I stand with the Police Service of Northern Ireland and the Garda Síochána.
I stand with the people of Ireland, in total opposition to the tiny minority who want hatred and division to overcome peace and progress.
They did not succeed.
They can not succeed.
They will not succeed.
At a time of intense sorrow for the dead and injured, we have all come closer together.
We have summoned not despair, but hope.
The story of Northern Ireland in recent years, and in recent weeks, is a story of hope.
When I met President Obama in Washington last week, he spoke of the heroic reaction of people here to the attacks.
He has spoken since, to a national TV audience in the States, of the inspiration that he gained seeing former enemies from Northern Ireland working together on St Patrick's Day.
Many in the new US administration - including our friends Secretary Clinton and Senator Mitchell - see in the story of Northern Ireland a story of hope. It is a story told around the world, wherever conflict reigns and peace is earnestly desired.
That hope has been replenished, not threatened, by the united reaction to the recent attacks.
It will survive and prosper.
And as we remain steadfast in support of our treasured peace, that hope must also inspire us to meet the economic challenge now before us.
Opportunity
We should not underestimate the scale or complexity of this new economic challenge.
We do not ignore the very real pain and suffering caused to so many hard-working families already.
We must be agile, innovative, thoughtful and fair in our response.
The Irish Government is rectifying the problems that have emerged and we are setting out to ensure they do not recur in the future.
But we will also identify and then firmly seize any and all opportunities that we have to help our economic recovery.
I am convinced that the development of the island economy is one such opportunity.
Of course, the existence of two jurisdictions on this island can cause problems as well as opportunities.
The southern economy and the southern exchequer is suffering from a significant loss of business and revenue at the moment, and that is a cause for real concern for my government.
But we also recognise that roles have been reversed in the past, even the recent past. No doubt things will change again in the future.
That is why we must be strategic and long-term in our thinking about the island economy and North/South co-operation.
We have already identified a wide range of areas where we can and do work together for mutual benefit.
We have created a single electricity market on the island and we are developing deeper connections on an East/West axis, including through some very interesting work on renewable energy with Scotland through the British-Irish Council.
We are undertaking a major programme of joint investment in infrastructure, especially in the inter-urban road networks.
The North/South bodies are actively working in both jurisdictions in key areas such as trade and business development, tourism, waterways and food safety.
Government departments and agencies on both sides of the border are actively co-ordinating on attracting foreign investment, on overseas trade missions, on building our higher education capacity and on training and skills development.
Work is continuing on important issues such as cross-border banking, business costs, spatial planning and labour mobility.
There are also several innovative and transformative regional initiatives, such as the North West Gateway Initiative and the Newry-Dundalk Twin Cities project.
Already we can see how the Dublin-Belfast Economic Corridor, which for many years seemed an almost fanciful concept, has become a powerful reality.
There are increasing levels of co-operation in public services such as health and education, including in the crucial area of third level research.
I hope to see further developments in those areas in particular in the future.
Not only can we learn from each other, but by working more closely together, rather than back-to-back, we have a significant opportunity to both improve services and to reduce costs.
This is an opportunity that we simply cannot afford to ignore in the present climate.
I want to assure everyone here tonight that the Irish Government believes in North/South co-operation and the development of the island economy as an essential part of our overall strategic policy framework.
I passionately believe that the all-island dimension lies at the heart of economic recovery for both parts of the island.
So, far from retreating from co-operation, we will press ahead with the current joint investment programme and we will work with the Northern Ireland Executive to intensify our co-operation.
Conclusion
We will not squander the unique opportunities that peace has brought.
We will continue to build for the future.
That will be one more clear response to those who seek to destroy our peace.
It will be one more building block for our economic recovery.
It will be a cornerstone of a bright, peaceful, prosperous future on this island.
I am absolutely convinced, and utterly determined, that this will be the great legacy from this generation to the next.
I look forward to working with the CBI, with your colleagues from IBEC in the Joint Business Council, with the other social partners, and with everyone across this island to transform this from opportunity to reality.
Thank you.