"The extent to which all people in our society are made to count, and believe that they count, is not just a measure of decency; it makes sound economic sense"
About this Quote
McAleese’s line is a quiet rebuke to the old political habit of treating inclusion as charity. By pairing “made to count” with “believe that they count,” she insists that belonging isn’t only a matter of formal rights or box-ticking representation; it’s also psychological infrastructure. The state can pass equalities legislation and still leave people socially invisible, economically sidelined, or culturally unwanted. Her phrasing exposes that gap: recognition has to be experienced, not merely declared.
The sentence is engineered to disarm two audiences at once. “Not just a measure of decency” nods to the moral argument without letting it be dismissed as soft-hearted idealism. Then she pivots to “sound economic sense,” a phrase that borrows the language of budgets and productivity to make inclusion legible to skeptics who only trust spreadsheets. The subtext is tactical: if empathy won’t move you, self-interest should.
Context matters. As an Irish president associated with bridge-building across sectarian and social divides, McAleese speaks out of a society where who “counts” has been a live, painful question: North/South tensions, church-state power, the long shadow of exclusion around women, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities. She’s translating reconciliation into policy logic. People who feel counted are more likely to participate, train, work, start businesses, and trust institutions; alienation is expensive, showing up as underemployment, ill health, and social fracture.
The brilliance is that she doesn’t romanticize belonging. She sells it as nation-building: dignity as an economic strategy, not an ornament.
The sentence is engineered to disarm two audiences at once. “Not just a measure of decency” nods to the moral argument without letting it be dismissed as soft-hearted idealism. Then she pivots to “sound economic sense,” a phrase that borrows the language of budgets and productivity to make inclusion legible to skeptics who only trust spreadsheets. The subtext is tactical: if empathy won’t move you, self-interest should.
Context matters. As an Irish president associated with bridge-building across sectarian and social divides, McAleese speaks out of a society where who “counts” has been a live, painful question: North/South tensions, church-state power, the long shadow of exclusion around women, LGBTQ people, and marginalized communities. She’s translating reconciliation into policy logic. People who feel counted are more likely to participate, train, work, start businesses, and trust institutions; alienation is expensive, showing up as underemployment, ill health, and social fracture.
The brilliance is that she doesn’t romanticize belonging. She sells it as nation-building: dignity as an economic strategy, not an ornament.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|
More Quotes by Mary
Add to List
