THE GOVERNMENT’S agenda will be dominated by “recovery, renewal and restoration”, President Mary McAleese has told a group of business people in Spain.
“This is not blind optimism. Ireland has a firm, solid base on which to build our recovery and intensive efforts are under way to correct our public finances, increase our competitiveness and stabilise our banking system,” she said.
Speaking about the Irish economy at the New Economic Forum in Madrid yesterday, Mrs McAleese said Ireland and Spain share a “vital interest” in ensuring the European Union emerges from the fiscal crisis as a “united, strong and effective vehicle” for the future.
Mrs McAleese was asked about the pressure being applied on Ireland by France in relation to the 12.5 per cent corporate tax rate and the chances of restructuring the State’s debt.
The President said the Government was strongly committed to the retention of the corporate tax regime and that it was part of an “integrated platform of strengths that will help pay off our debts and grow the country”.
She said she was hopeful the issue of “sustainability and payability of debt” will be taken on board at the EU summit in Brussels later this week.
However, she added that as she was not an “active politician” and not partial to any of the decisions it would be wrong of her to comment further.
Mrs McAleese was asked if she agreed German lending was partly responsible for the financial crisis in Ireland, to which she replied the country is “very grateful” for Germany’s support and that Ireland had been “major beneficiaries” of the main European power.
Other questions included if she considered China a threat, her views on same-sex marriage and the parallels if any between the Basque conflict and the North.
Away from the question and answer session, Mrs McAleese’s first official visit to Spain has been a cordial one as she returns to the country she first visited as a 16 year old.
She joked that she had brought long-lost cousins together after she revealed her husband Dr Martin McAleese and the president of the Madrid region Esperanza Aguirre are part of the O’Neill clan.
President McAleese later chatted comfortably in Spanish with King Juan Carlos ahead of a lunch in her honour at the Royal Palace.
The President was entertained last night at a reception hosted by the Irish Ambassador Justin Harman with a joint performance by acclaimed Galician piper Carlos Nuñez and traditional Irish musicians.
This afternoon she will hold bilateral talks with Spanish prime minister José Luís Rodriguez Zapatero and the president of the congress of deputies.
Mrs McAleese will spend the final day of her visit in Barcelona tomorrow where she will attend the Sagrada Família cathedral before meeting the president of the government of Catalunya, Artur Mas.
The President will address an Enterprise Ireland pharmaceuticals gathering and meet members of the Irish community at a reception in the city hall before returning to Dublin tomorrow evening.