German ambassador Christian Paulssets the record straight as to what he did - and did not - say at that Clontarf meeting.
In the course of a year I probably speak to 10-15 visiting German groups on Ireland. Such meetings consist of my introductory words and a question-and-answer session. Their average length is between one and 1½ hours. The aim is to inform visitors about fellow EU-member Ireland. In Clontarf, I touched on healthcare, traffic and immigration. On other occasions I may talk about business and finance, the real-estate market, education and the environment, and so on. It all depends on the background of the groups.
My talks usually are quite black-and-white; yes, even provocative. I use this to get the listeners' attention and to induce them to participate in the question-and-answer session. These sessions then fill in the necessary shades of grey.
My talk in Clontarf followed this pattern. However, I did make one mistake. I did not consider that there would be no subsequent question-and-answer session, with no possibility to soften the initial impact. For this, I apologise.
It goes without saying that I regret any misunderstandings that might have arisen.
I will now address the contents of the article and of my address as I delivered it in German. I opened with the remark that very many Germans, including politicians and high-ranking civil servants, believe that it was EU money, including a large portion contributed by the German taxpayer, which was responsible for the Irish success story. I dismissed this as rubbish.
Ninety-five per cent of the success, I said, was owed to the work of the Irish people. I did not further elaborate on the Celtic Tiger phenomenon, because I presumed that the group will have had information on this prior to their arrival in Ireland or would get such information from other speakers during their stay in Dublin. Apart from that, the Irish achievement is common knowledge.
I then remarked that one should always have a close look at the history of a country to better understand it. I gave a brief rundown on the history of Ireland during the last millennium, including, among other things, the Plantation, the Penal Laws and the Famine. I added that, in my eyes, Irish history was probably the saddest of that of all European countries, sadder even than Polish history. Why this comparison? Every educated German knows about the terrible suffering which Poland has endured over centuries. My comparison, therefore, was made to make the extent of Irish suffering clearer.
In the part dealing with the health system I explained that the Irish system differed from the German system in that senior doctors in Germany are employees of the hospitals; senior doctors in Ireland, however, work as consultants. A few months ago we had - I think for the first time - a nationwide strike by hospital doctors over working conditions and remuneration. It was the number one topic for weeks.
In Clontarf, I cited the reported reaction of a person working on behalf of consultants to the minister for health's offer of €200,000 per year and a possible additional €20,000 as "Mickey Mouse money". The listeners probably laughed in amazement. It is well known that more than a few senior doctors in German hospitals would be happy to earn one-third of the stated amount.
In the context of my remarks on traffic I cited a statement by the American-Irish Chamber of Commerce of some months ago, which said that in addition to high rents and the high costs of living, it was traffic congestion and commuting which made it more difficult to attract younger Americans to take up work in Dublin. I did not mention American visitors to Ireland with one word during my entire talk.
On immigration, I started out by saying that immigration and any ensuing multi-culturalism as such were not necessarily a value in themselves. What was needed was integration. I then expanded on our German experience with poorer immigrants settling down in areas charging the cheapest rent, which led to a sort of self-imposed ghettoisation, which in turn hindered the learning of the local language and resulted in schools facing enormous difficulties, with 70 per cent of pupils being non-nationals with poor language skills, and so on.
I continued by saying that I was constantly appalled by how little all of us (meaning all members of the EU) did to learn from the mistakes and successes of other member countries. Instead, we all try to reinvent the wheel yet again. This is a constant theme in all of my talks.
I make it a rule never to cite Germany as a positive example. That would not be good manners. Furthermore, I will always find an EU member state that does better. For instance, in healthcare you will always hear me refer to France, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries as worth studying.
I did not have a go at the former dominant position of the Catholic Church. I made some remarks on the Catholic Church because questions in this regard are a constant with German visiting groups.
Here is what I said: The Catholic Church, because of various scandals which have come to light, has lost a great deal of its moral authority. Nevertheless, the number of Catholics in Ireland attending church was still very much higher than in Germany.
I said that I had met a number of high-ranking clergy of the Catholic Church, men who deeply impressed me. I was convinced, I said, that these men would be successful in re-establishing significant parts of the authority lost. I did not once use the word "coarse" in my talk. At one stage I said that the question being posed in Ireland was whether the new prosperity had made Irish society a rougher, less caring one.
I did not say that ministers of state in Ireland earn more than the chancellor of Germany. It would have been pointless, since we do not have the rank of junior ministers in our government. What I said was that secretary-generals in the Irish Civil Service can earn more money than the chancellor.
I did not say that 20 per cent of the Irish population are public servants. What I said was that roughly 20 per cent of the Irish workforce were employed in the public sector.
I never heard MEP [ Gay] Mitchell interjecting anything, so there is nothing I could have greeted with laughter.
I left Clontarf immediately after my talk, before Mr Mitchell began speaking. So he could not have addressed me.
At the end of my talk I explained that the first two digits on any licence plate stood for the year of registration of the car. I invited listeners to take note of licence plates 07, 06, 05 when on Dublin's streets. I remarked that there were comparably few cars to be seen with nine as the first digit.
Why did I mention this? Because the average age of German cars is between eight and nine years.
From there I switched over to a joke, which I said had been told to me by an Irish acquaintance.
The joke goes like this: During the intermission at the National Concert Hall the announcer said they were looking for the owner of a 93 D car to move it, because it was blocking the entrance. Nobody responded. Nobody was willing to admit that he drove a 93 D car. The car is still standing there. End of the joke.
In closing, I note that the Sunday Independentasked the embassy whether there was a written text of my talk. The embassy replied that this was not the case. We heard nothing more from the Sunday Independentbefore publication of the article.
This is an edited version of Mr Pauls's letter of reply to a report in last Sunday's Sunday Independent. The full version will be placed on the German embassy's website (http://www.dublin.diplo.de).