President-elect looks to era of transformation

PRESIDENT-ELECT Michael D Higgins yesterday said he was well aware of people’s concerns during the economic crisis and wanted to play a role in turning things around.

“I am very well aware having travelled the country of the grief that is there in terms of disappointed expectations, the stress related to mortgages and properties that have devalued and all of it, most of all the principal problem [of] 424,000 people unemployed and many more in jobs that are insecure,” he told RTÉ at his Galway home.

Mr Higgins said he would do his part to change the situation.

“There is a responsibility to turn all of that around and to be a source of inspiration at home in relation to people who are doing things co-operatively and together,” he said.

He would also be of assistance to “those who are seeking to bring investment to Ireland and to create jobs”, he said,

Mr Higgins also spoke of his desire to help mould an Irishness based on different values.

“An Irishness that is based on the fundamental radical recognition of the dignity of every living person versus valuing a person in terms of what they were assumed to have accumulated for example in personal wealth far beyond their needs,” he said.

He spoke of working with people to bring about change.

“I am only one person, not above or beyond separated from the people but with the people together moving into a new and very important seven years of transformation in Ireland in which I hope it will be exciting that we will all work together to create an Ireland that we can all be part of and proud of in the end,” he said.