Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a point on which we must now work with the Speaker of the House, who has strong Leinster roots. I will be talking to the Speaker of the House in due course.

I mentioned multinationals to the President-elect and made the point that, over many years, America invested in Ireland because of its strong legal base, its English-speaking population, its access to the European Union and its static corporate tax rate, which was our business under the European treaties. I made the point to him that the real reason American investment is taking place here and has grown substantially over the years is the quality of the education system and of the young people emerging under that market. I made the point to him that it is now at a stage when Irish-owned firms employ almost 100,000 US citizens across the 50 US states.

Deputy Burton should note that we must work with the US Administration when it is appointed. This is politics. We will not lose any of our ethical standards or values in this country. Why should we? We do not have control over the American system, nor does it have control over ours. In politics, however, one has to make decisions that are in the best interest of the people of our country and the economies of our countries. Obviously, we are prepared to work on that.

Deputy Bríd Smith should note that the comments made by the President-elect were conciliatory. Deputy Howlin mentioned the real anxiety among the undocumented. I have said to him what the Vice President-elect said to me about the priorities of the President-elect. I intend to follow through on that, obviously. I note today that the President-elect's 100-day strategy, published in The New York Times, sets out the areas where he can act unilaterally as President, where he will require congressional support to act if he follows through on various measures, and the areas where there might be a need for other interventions, be they administrative, bureaucratic or otherwise, in respect of the priorities he has set out.

Deputy Ryan has left the Chamber. We stand up by our own actions. The new US Administration has not taken up office yet and decisions have not been made. Obviously, we now have to have our own connections with a Republican party that controls both the Congress and Senate, in addition to connections with the American political system in general. These are all issues on which, from a political perspective, we need to be able to continue to work with the United States, as other countries will and must do. In that sense, it is an international challenge. We have a number of these facing us now. When the President-elect takes up office on 20 January, we will see the shape of the Administration and its views. Our personnel, diplomatic relations and business connections with the United States will be important in the sense of continuing to build on where we want to be.

In respect of Caligula and his horse, they are long gone.

See this speech in context