AMBASSADOR'S OUTREACH 

The two days concluded with a celebration at Dublin Castle with speeches by Governor O'Malley and Ambassador Foley.  Governor O'Malley celebrated the past decade of the program and Ambassador Foley looked forward to the coming decade

Ambassador Foley's Remarks:  Celebrating 10 Years of Cross Border Programs : Dublin Castle: April 14, 2007

Good evening.  I want to congratulate the Irish Institute on completing a decade of dialogue.  What a decade it has been!  Beginning in the midst of negotiations leading-up to the Good Friday Agreement and ending on the eve of the historic May 8 reforming of Stormont.  If there ever was a decade that proved-out the value of dialogue in Ireland, this was surely it.

But the job in the North isn’t done – and it may be just beginning. The hard part – governance – lies ahead.  Just as in marriage, the real work starts after the words, “I do.”

The biggest challenges I see to the new government are economic growth and developing programs for integrating the catholic and protestant communities – particularly the young people in those communities.  Both challenges warrant and may require the same levels of dialogue that have sustained the peace process over the last decade.

The importance of the economy in obtaining support for the new government is summed-up in the deceptively simple, but insightful, mantra from the 1992 U.S. Presidential campaign - “It’s the economy, stupid.”

The economic challenge isn’t in deciding the way to go because the correct course is well known.  The challenge will be whether the Stormont leadership can navigate the course.  Economists no longer dispute how to stimulate and grow economies such as Northern Ireland.  It is the same path pursued in the South after 1985 when years of high taxes and public sector-driven spending programs nearly bankrupted Ireland.  The answer as we know now is to shrink the public sector, attract domestic and foreign investment with low taxes and competitive social costs, and support entrepreneurial activity. 

But just because economists know the right course doesn’t mean all politicians do.  And even some politicians who do may not be able to sell the prescribed course to their constituents.  So dialogue will be key to helping persuade leaders and the public in Northern Ireland of the right course for achieving the same economic benefits as have been achieved here in the South.

The same is true of community integration.  There is less hard science to show us the way in community integration, but there is a lot of valuable experience and much of it was learned in the U.S.  The long, painful experience of integrating schools in the U.S. can surely provide some light and direction to the North as it embarks on its integration journey.

I recently made a visit to Northern Ireland with the U.S. Ambassador to the UK.  One of the things we did was to visit a program called NFTE, the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.  The program teaches entrepreneurship skills to disadvantaged young people so that they can become productive members of their economic community and build a better future for themselves. 

This program represented a ‘two-for’ in that it was helping young people benefit more from the economy, and vice versa, but was also bringing together young people from both the catholic and protestant communities – something that the school system in the north doesn’t currently do.  It is through hundreds of programs like these, partly created and supported through dialogue such as you will be having at the Irish Institute over the decade ahead that final peace and prosperity in the North will be assured.

I congratulate and commend you on your achievements during your first decade.  I look forward to supporting this great program in the decade ahead - and I want to thank you for the important contribution you are making to a better Ireland.

Thank you very much.