A Clare-based £20 million institute which will examine social change in Irish society was inaugurated at a conference in Ennis yesterday.
Father Harry Bohan, the conference organiser, said the creation of the CΘifin International Institute for Values-Led Change would concentrate people's minds on the challenges of the new millennium.
"If anything good was to come out of the events of September 11th, it may be that they induce us to apply our critical capacity to our own value system," he said.
The institute is planned for a site outside Newmarket-on-Fergus and will provide a forum for business leaders, educationists, professionals and members of religious voluntary organisations to reflect on how family and community have been affected by economic development.
Father Bohan, a Shannon-based sociologist, said individual change lead to organisational and societal change. He hopes to receive half of the estimated £20 million cost of the institute, which will have conference and lecture rooms, office accommodation and a walled garden, from Government sources.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has endorsed the project's concept, stating that a bigger body of researchers and commentators was needed in the incorporation of "social capital" into public policy.
Father Bohan, addressing the conference, said the name 'CΘifin' was derived from CΘibhfhionn, the Celtic goddess of inspiration.
"The path of reconstruction must begin with search. This is why we need the institute. There is an urgency about this," he said.
Also speaking at the conference was Ms Carmel Foley, director of consumer affairs, who said vigilance was as important in consumer relations as in all other areas of public life but it was in danger of "being dulled by convenience".
"Our inertia then becomes something we pay for, literally in cash. Our inertia strips us of our critical responsibility to take charge of our affairs," she said.