President Mary McAleese has acknowledged the role of the United States in the economic “transformation of Ireland” and she said both countries have remarkable resources available to face the tougher economic climate ahead.
Mrs McAleese was addressing the Independence Day lunch hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, in Dublin today.
She said the US had played a prominent role in the “economic transformation of Ireland”.
“Some 470 US companies in Ireland employ almost 100,000 people in a range of high-end sectors and they have helped to seed-bed a successful, native, entrepreneurial culture which is today returning the compliment.”
Irish investment in the US had increased ten-fold in the last decade, making it one of the 10 largest investors in that market. Irish companies in the US employ more than 80,000 people in over 200 companies in 50 states, the president said.
Remarking that the media were “awash with stories of economic gloom”, Mrs McAleese said some 66 companies had opened new offices in the US market in the last 18 months.
“These, and many more like them, are working assiduously and courageously in this tough economic climate to keep the wheels of commerce moving, to keep people in jobs, to open up new markets, to invest in new products, to ensure that the march of egalitarian prosperity continues, for it is for so many the march to freedom and opportunity, the march to revealing the world’s truest and best potential.”
“So we look to our strengths: our membership of the EU and the Eurozone; our position as a key, strategic location for forward-thinking US companies seeking to service the EU market and beyond; our very young, confident, flexible and well-educated population; our business-friendly environment; our ease and fluency in the global marketplace,” she said.
Mrs McAleese noted that along with the rest of the world, including the US, Ireland is facing into a period of economic uncertainty.
“Other generations faced periods of economic uncertainty too. None of them faced them with the remarkable set of resources we have available to us - the problem-solving skills, the widespread education, the networks,the achievements and the confidence that are the strength and hope of this generation."
She noted the contribution Irish emigrants had made to the US, bringing with them “the culture and story, the music and dance, the love of life and passion for justice of their native land”.
“These things they planted in American soil along with their determination to make good and help their children to flourish. Through them we grew this remarkable, global Irish family with its links around the world and its reach back down through generations.”
Mrs McAleese also acknowledged the role of the US in the peace process in the North.
“The peace process was painstakingly constructed with the considerable and invaluable help of successive US administrations. Irish-American politicians of all political persuasions spoke on Ireland with one voice," she said.
“Irish America and its massive cohort of friends devised the American Ireland Fund which invested its generously given money in projects on this island that helped end sectarianism and build intercommunal trust. All of them knew they were in for the long haul and even when things were at their most depressing they were always at our shoulders, willing on the peacemakers. Our debt to them is enormous.”
The lunch in Dublin was hosted by American Chamber of Commerce chief executive Joanne Richardson. Mrs McAleese and 1,500 invited guests will also attend a July 4th celebration hosted by US ambassador to Ireland Thomas C Foley at the US Ambassador’s Residence in Phoenix Park this evening.
Today marks the 232nd anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the official birth of the US as an independent nation.