President Michael D. Higgins this week announced plans for 50 all-island initiatives involving seminars which will as he puts it ‘reflect and explore themes important to our shared life, restoration of trust in our institutions, the ethical connection between our economy and society, the future of a Europe built on peace, social solidarity and sustainability.
The seminars will include talks from international philosophers and leading thinkers in the area of ethics and will take place in mainly 3rd level institutions.
Speaking to Newstalk reporter Shona Murray the President said that through habit the Irish people could achieve “moral sensibility” and that members of the LGBT community could not achieve rights on their own.
President Michael D. Higgins has said the Irish people have the capacity to accept those from the LGBT community and allow them to participate fully in society.
His comments come in light of the Government agreeing to hold a referendum on same sex marriage before the summer of 2015.
Moral courage
In the same interview the President Higgins said there is a place in society for the whistleblower and that it showed moral courage for those who came forward.
“Certainly there is a role for the whistleblower, of course and they have courage.
“I do think they do have moral courage. It’s very important that institutions not be immune from criticism,” he said.
People have lost trust
Speaking on the recent economic crisis President Higgins said the Irish people now need to be able to move past the failures of models that have not served us in the past.
He said the Irish people had lost trust in professional areas where people once had great confidence including ones that were perceived to be highly conservative and careful; in banking, in the legal profession, and accountancy.
Economic equality
The President also said he believed that Europe and the world are becoming less individualistic.
“Extreme individualism has delivered us a situation where the top 51 richest people in the world have income greater than half of the people alive on the planet.
“Certainly in the case of Europe this is a debate that is essential because one could find one self sleep walking into a nightmare precisely the same way 100 years ago the whole continent sleep walked into a catastrophic war which lost so much life,” he said.
