Speech by the Taoiseach, Mr. Brian Cowen, T.D., at the Volvo Ocean Race Galway Port Announcement

A dhaoine uaisle;

Tá áthas orm a bheith libh inniu ag fograíonn Rás an Aigéain de chuid Volvo. Bhí na mílte daoine tugtha le rás Volvo anuraidh agus Cathair na nTreibheanna dubh le daoine ag baint sult as radharc iontach na nluamh ar chuan na Gaillimhe. Tá an radharc céanna i ndán dúinn sa bhliain dhá mhíle is a dó dhéag (2012). Críochnóidh an rás eile i gCuan na Gaillimhe.

Agus is cúis áthais dom gur roghnaigh an Chathair arís. Is dea-scéal é don Iarthar agus cuirfidh sé go mór leis an earnáil turasóireachta ar fud na Éireann chomh maith. Comhgharideachas Gaillimh!

I am delighted to join you all this afternoon for this important announcement. I would like to give a special welcome to Knut Frostad, CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Next year, at Alicante, the starting gun will sound for the Volvo Ocean Race 2011 - 2012. There was a huge Irish interest in the 2008 – 2009 event.

We had two Irish entries in a field of just eight - Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd - and as an added bonus, we succeeded in our bid to have Galway included in the list of 11 stopover ports.

It was wonderful to see Galway keeping company with great port cities around the world like Rio, Boston, St. Petersburg, Cape Town and Qingdao - where Green Dragon was built. The in - port racing brought spectators close up to the action. And Galway put on a show to remember, helped by an army of enthusiastic volunteers.

I myself, along with my colleague, Martin Cullen, experienced the tremendous atmosphere when we attended the spectacular official opening ceremony of the Galway stopover, together with thousands of others on the quays on that very special Sunday. I am told that the sailors, support crews, organisers and media were bowled over by the warmth of the Irish welcome.

It might have seemed that this was a once in a lifetime experience. But as we have just heard, the good news today is that it's going to happen all over again. Green Dragon will be one of the boats over the starting line in 2011 and the race is finishing in Galway in 2012.

The Galway stopover is a hugely important win for Ireland. It's estimated that 87,000 people visited the Galway region during last year's stopover and that it helped generate a massive €55 million for the regional economy, more than a third higher than the original projections. There were over 600,000 visits to the race village; local hotels sold more than 200,000 bed nights; and the economic benefits were shared by virtually every business in Galway.

Hosting the race enabled us to showcase the City of the Tribes, the West and Ireland to a television audience of some 1. 8 billion people around the world - an incredible marketing opportunity. The 2011 - 2012 race will do all of this again and more, because this time, Galway is the finishing port and the final prize-giving will be held there.

Of course, the benefits of our participation in this great sporting event extended beyond business and tourism. It reinforced Ireland's maritime tradition. It strengthened further the growing bond between Ireland and China. It gave Irish people around the world an enormous boost. Most importantly, taking part in one of the world's greatest sporting events enhanced our image as a positive, can - do nation.

The Government contributed €4 million to support the latest bid for a Galway stopover in partnership with "Let's Do It Global" and commercial sponsors and we believe that, as on the previous occasion, this will be money well spent. I'm confident that the necessary commercial support will be forthcoming to make the 2012 stopover even bigger and better than last time around.

The Volvo Ocean Race is not for the faint - hearted. It involves a gruelling, nine month long battle with competing teams and the world's most treacherous seas. This really is, as the organisers say, "Life at the Extreme." - high octane adventure.

The Volvo Open 70 Class is the world's fastest monohull and a credit to its engineers. But so much is down to the skill, concentration and teamwork of their crews - and their tolerance for very primitive living conditions, sleep deprivation, freeze dried food and each other! A 70 foot boat may look big to us from the shore but it must seem very small when you're sharing it with around 10 other people and a lot of sea!

The spectacular footage of these great yachts in action gave us all a sense of the excitement, the danger, the skill of the skippers and crew, the cutting edge technology, the strength of the yachts, the raw power and ferocity of the elements - the sheer drama of it all. But to really appreciate what this great race is about, you would have to be in there for the long haul, for nine long months of hard slogging.

Ireland's success in securing Galway's place as the finishing stopover port in the Volvo Ocean Race 2011 - 2012 and our participation in the race confirms, once again, that this small country can compete on the world stage. Leadership and teamwork have key roles to play but, ultimately, it's about pride, self - belief and the will to win.

This race has been called the "Everest of Sailing." We have our own mountain to climb in Ireland at present and we will have to draw on those very same qualities to get our economy moving again.

Fortunately, we have them in abundance. I know from meeting business people from around the country that there's a huge wealth of self - belief, positivity and determination out there and that's what is going to drive our economic recovery and renewal. For our part, the Government will continue to pull out all the stops to create the right environment for recovery. And we - and the country as a whole - will draw inspiration from the successful bid for a stopover, for the second time running - and from seeing Green Dragon once again taking on the best in the world in the Volvo Ocean Race.

The Irish involvement in the Volvo Ocean Race is one of many marketing and promotional initiatives to restore growth to Irish tourism. Budget 2010 increased the overall tourism services allocation to over €155m. These funds will enable Fáilte Ireland to continue its valuable work in enhancing the tourism product, developing enterprises and people and promoting home holidays. Tourism Ireland, for its part, will continue to promote the island of Ireland as a visitor destination. As we approach the St. Patrick’s Festival, the eyes of the world turn towards Ireland and offer us a unique opportunity to promote our nation, our economy and our tourism.

We are determined to take full advantage of this: intensive campaigns are being undertaken in key tourism markets during the Festival and Fáilte Ireland is supporting many events here in Ireland.

But back to today's news. 82 ports expressed an interest in hosting the Volvo Ocean Race 2011 - 2012. Galway's success was the result of a fantastic team effort involving Let's Do It Galway, Fáilte Ireland, Tourism Ireland and Galway Harbour Board in the competitive bidding process.

Congratulations to everyone involved - including John Killeen, David Beattie, Eamon Bradshaw and Brian Sheridan. And last but not least the "unsinkable entrepreneur", Enda O’Coineen. Enda is himself an inspiration in difficult times. A man who started his own publishing business in the middle of the 1980s recession, without any cash whatsoever, Enda is least likely to say: "can't be done."!

Earlier this week, we were delighted to hear of Richard Baneham's triumph at the Oscars. We were also very proud of the other Irish nominees - Tomm Moore; Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell; Juanita Wilson and James Flynn; and Peter J. Devlin. Well done to all concerned here today for generating another good news story for Ireland.

And thanks very much to Volvo for making it all possible in the first place, building on the tradition of the great clipper ships, like the Cutty Sark, which battled for the fastest time between ports over a century ago, in what's been called the Golden Age of Sailing.

As an island nation, Ireland is very happy to be part of this tradition and we look forward to welcoming the return of the Volvo Ocean Race to our shores.