Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 to 12, inclusive, together.

On 9 October 2013, I had an informal meeting with former US President Bill Clinton, who was visiting Dublin to attend an event organised by Philanthropy Ireland. The President is a very good friend of Ireland and is keenly interested in our progress, so I took the opportunity to update him on a range of issues in which he remains keenly interested.

President Clinton, of course, has been a major influence on the Northern Ireland peace process over the years, so I updated him on the current situation in Northern Ireland, including the talks process chaired by Richard Haass, which was still in its early stages at that point. President Clinton has also provided valuable assistance to Ireland during our economic difficulties. In February 2012, for example, he hosted the "Invest In Ireland" round-table event in New York, which I attended. This was a valuable opportunity to engage with investors and to promote Ireland as a location for investment.

Our meeting on 9 October was a good opportunity to update President Clinton on Ireland's progress towards economic recovery. He had a particular interest in this. We also discussed political and economic developments in the US. The main reason for President Clinton's visit to Dublin was to support Philanthropy Ireland, and we discussed recent progress with Ireland's objective of increasing the level of philanthropic giving.

President Clinton also updated me on the work of the Clinton Foundation. I was pleased to learn about the progress the Clinton Foundation is making in tackling issues such as HIV-AIDS, health access, development, climate change and child health and nutrition. We also discussed Ireland's very successful partnership with the foundation through the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Ireland has partnered with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Africa since 2003 and supports HIV-AIDS programmes in Mozambique and Lesotho, as well as programmes to improve maternal and child health and child nutrition. This was essentially the range of our conversation. I again took the opportunity to thank President Clinton for his ongoing support for Ireland over the years.

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