home » media centre » press releases

Burton calls for greater North-South economic cooperation

Issued : Sunday 7 February, 2010

It's a great pleasure for me to be here this afternoon to represent the Party of European Socialists, the PES, through which the SDLP and the Irish Labour Party have a long-standing partnership.

Our fraternal colleagues in the PES have been greatly supportive of the struggle for peace and prosperity on the island of Ireland and I look forward to building and strengthening this relationship as we move into the second decade of the 21st century.

I want to congratulate Mark Durkan on his immense contribution to peace in Ireland.

Like John Hume before him, and like so many stalwarts of the SDLP, Mark has stayed the course down the decades in supporting a non-violent resolution to conflict in the North.

He has served his Party and our country with great distinction.

His leadership has been singular and determined.

He has stayed true to the core mission of ending violence in the North, to delivering economic prosperity, equality and civil rights for all.

Mark's speech earlier today, and what a speech delegates, shows that the island of Ireland needs someone of his vision and determination to grow the dialogue, and build the bridges on an all-island bridges.

He spoke of the legacy of Edward Kennedy.

Edward Kennedy, and indeed George Mitchell, offer us vibrant examples of senior statesmen who can lead and inspire fresh thinking, and renewed dialogue.

As such a senior politician, Mark Durkan is now exceptionally well-placed to help us to break out of silo politics, where parties and communities become embedded in fixed positions.

The challenge for all of us as we look forward to the next decade and to the important anniversaries we will celebrate, like 1916, is to transform the politics of this island.

The challenge is not simply to end violence in politics, but also to take the next step, to bring together communities, which have been for so long divided.

And when I say communities, I don't just mean the old Northern divide between Nationalists, Republicans and Unionists.

I also mean the divide that has in many ways grown between North and South.

If we are to truly transform Irish politics, we need to begin with an honest and critical assessment of the road travelled thus far.

Sometimes, our different communities can seem like different worlds, but I remain full of hope that, together, we can transcend the politics of the past and build an Ireland that every one of us is proud to call home.

We also need to ensure that young people growing up on this island, whatever their background, and wherever they come form on the island, have an opportunity to get to know each other, to work side by side, to build the bonds of friendship and solidarity that will ensure there is no room for a return to violence.

Now, more than ever, the common values of economic and social solidarity of the SDLP, the Labour Party and the PES, need to be confidently asserted, particularly by the new generation of party activists.

Crony capitalism, corruption has been a common factor in the destruction of so much employment, wealth and pensions, here and around the world.

We need to work to grow an all-Ireland economy, that will restore the flow of credit to business north and south.

We need to develop an all-island framework of taxation.

We need to work together to develop indigenous industry, and attract Foreign Direct Investment, north and south.

We need jobs, and more jobs.

Barack Obama said it best recently when he said "the best anti-poverty programme is a world class education."

For young people, now re-engaged in politics by the scale of the financial and economic crisis, these are the special challenges.

In that context, I am particularly happy to be present here with my former assistant Conall McDevitt, who I have no doubt will be a worthy successor to Carmel Hanna.

I wish the new leadership team every good fortune, and on behalf of the Labour Party and the PES, we look forward to working with you.