THE NORTHERN Ireland peace process is “tremendously inspiring to everyone in New York City and America as a whole”, the speaker of the New York City Council Christine C Quinn told an Oireachtas committee yesterday.
She was appearing at the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, where she was greeted by the chairman, Fianna Fáil TD Noel Treacy, as “a steadfast friend of Ireland”.
She said New York City was “psychologically and economically connected to Ireland”, and was prepared to do “anything we can” to help sustain progress.
Irish companies were giving jobs to 80,000 workers in her city, she added. She wanted to reaffirm the gratitude of New Yorkers to Ireland for being “the only country that had a day of national mourning” after 9/11. “You should never think that that is forgotten in New York,” she added.
The North’s Minister for Agriculture Michelle Gildernew, SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie and MPs Pat Doherty (Sinn Féin) and Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP) also attended and spoke.
Asked by Ms Ritchie to outline New York’s response to the recession, Ms Quinn said the city was “in a much better place than other places, especially New York State”.
Questioned by Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin and Fine Gael Senator Joe O’Reilly on the prospects for comprehensive immigration reform in the US, Ms Quinn said she was “not optimistic” about any moves in this direction for the present.
Fianna Fáil Senator Cecilia Keaveney outlined a project for an exhibition to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11 next year.
The Belfast Agreement committee was established in October 2007 and Westminster MPs from Northern Ireland are entitled to take part in proceedings – although they do not have the right to vote.
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