Speech by Minister Éamon Ó Cuív T.D. Minister for Community, Rural & Gaeltacht Affairs at the Galway Chamber Spring Reception
Written by Eamon Ó Cuív Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Galway Chamber Spring Reception
Galway Airport - Thursday February 18 2010 – 18.45h
Éamon Ó Cuív TD, Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs
Óráid / Speech
A chairde
Thank you all for the invitation to address the Galway Chamber Spring Reception.
The past year and a half has been rough for everyone, and with the very harsh winter of recent months, it has been a nightmare for some people. If there is a positive spark left it is that tough times focus us on getting the basics of everyday work and living right.
The global economic storm has focused us on getting the basic working parts of our economy right. Although our economy is far from the high tide of prosperity we saw, it is now on a safer course from the tidal wave that threatened to engulf it.
It can be difficult to recognise positive sparks when there is a suffocating amount of negativity around us. Economists talk about how negativity can drive more negativity. False optimism will not solve that but I believe that we can be cautiously optimistic for the year ahead.
What then are the positive sparks in Galway? The economy will not return to prosperity overnight but working day by day we can steer it back to where we want it to be. We have some positive factors here in Galway that we can build on.
As a small island nation the ocean creates the challenge to provide transport services in and out of Ireland. The same ocean also creates opportunities in its untapped potential and I also wish to address that.
Some commentators rightly question if we “blew the boom” but the transport investment of recent years is starting to pay off and will create new transport options for moving people and services. The completion of the motorway network makes all our regions visibly more competitive in the wider world. The completion of the Galway-Dublin motorway means that both Galway and Belfast are now the same travelling distance from Dublin. The country is now only 2 hours wide. Challenges remain travelling north-south but it won’t be too long before the new M17 motorway from Gort to Tuam starts construction.
During the very good years we also invested in the complete upgrade of our national rail network through new tracks and new signalling. This coupled with investment in new trains is creating opportunities for Iarnród Éireann to improve its rail services. There have been improvements to train journey times between Galway and Dublin and I continue to impress upon Iarnród Éireann the need to introduce express services on this route.
The re-opening in a few weeks of the section of the Western Rail Corridor on the new Galway-Limerick line creates new opportunities. It highlights the great common sense behind re-opening the Tuam-Athenry rail link. It also opens the possibility of a future station for commuters at Oranmore, not too far from this airport.
The past 18 months have not been without challenges for the staff and management at Galway Airport. I know that you have had to make very hard decisions to make headway in a global economic storm. Government has faced tough choices in that same economic storm but I am pleased that we were able to assist with over €900,000 in operational funding last year.
There are those pundits who might seek to pit one form of transport in the West against another. However, there is no one-size-fits all form of transport. Changed life and work demands mean that many people use a mix of transport options from one end of the week to the next. Rather than being in competition with each other the various transport developments in our region will feed off each other in a positive way. Improved transport and improved broadband are changing the dynamics of distance and travel for Galway and the West. These are positive sparks that business can build on.
There are commentators who would think of Galway Airport as just a small airstrip for people going solely to Dublin and back or to the UK and back. They would be selling Galway Airport short. The presence here tonight of Pádraig Ó Céidigh of Aer Arann and Karen Maloney of Etihad Airlines shows what can be achieved by the people who look beyond the obvious. Go onto the Etihad website and thanks to the code-share arrangement with Aer Arann, Galway Airport becomes your gateway to a wide world of destinations including Etihad’s home in Abu Dhabi, and places like Sydney, Mumbai and Tokyo. Galway Airport is more our local connection in a global airport network rather than a standalone facility. Aer Arann’s new arrangements with Aer Lingus will also increase such global connectivity right here on our doorstep, without the long queues.
We can make such progress when we think more like those great sports managers who can convert a big floundering full forward into the bedrock of a team’s defence. Sometimes we need to think like that to change mindsets. Hopefully in terms of Galway’s future, part of the positive legacy of the Volvo Ocean Race 2009 Stopover in Galway will be that more people will see the ocean as a vast resource rather than a gigantic barrier.
It is surely no accident that the 2010 Round Ireland Offshore Powerboat Race visit to Galway follows the success of the Volvo Ocean Race here in 2009. Hopefully the Volvo Ocean Race will return to Galway in 2011-2012. I am pleased to have been involved in working with my cabinet colleague Minister Martin Cullen TD and Let’s Do It Global in arranging Government support for Galway’s bid for the next Volvo Ocean Race in 2011-2012. I wish the Galway bid every success.
I must take tonight’s opportunity to re-iterate the need to progress the development of the Galway inner harbour area and of Ceannt Station as quickly as possible while ensuring that we get a coherent plan there with good quality development. We have further untapped potential in activity tourism in Galway and Ireland and developing the Galway inner harbour area is the gateway to much of it.
There are positive sparks out there, there are some opportunities, so we must continue working harder together to push-start our economy again. In the same way that we should not lose the run of ourselves during good times, we should not run ourselves down during the tough times.
Many people have made many sacrifices but we will all see better economic times again if we persist on our journey. A global upturn will come and we want to make sure that we are prepared to catch the first wave. Go raibh míle maith agaibh.
CRÍOCH / Ends
