Visits by Queen and Obama an 'investment'

TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY has said opponents of the visits by Queen Elizabeth and US president Barack Obama to Ireland should consider them an “investment for the future”.

Mr Kenny was answering questions in the Dáil as Richard Boyd Barrett (ULA, Dún Laoghaire) called the visits a “jamboree” when the security costs could pay for hospital beds to be reopened.

Joe Higgins (ULA, Dublin West) suggested that the Queen be asked to pay towards her “bed and breakfast” because Ireland was “figuratively, almost sleeping rough”.

Mr Boyd Barrett had raised the issue of costs and claimed that it was “rubbing the noses” of the public who were being “slaughtered with cuts”, by inviting “one of the richest women in the world to this country for a jamboree” and by spending “millions on bringing over the American president when that president is involved in a war in Afghanistan, in arming and financing dictatorships in the Middle East”.

Mr Boyd Barrett asked if reports of the security costs for the two visits of up to €25 million were true.

Mr Kenny described Mr Boyd Barrett’s comments as “short-sighted” and told him that he should look at the visits of “two global figures” as an “investment”.

He said the full costs would be made public after the visits and while he did not know the costs, they would be “extensive obviously”.

Mr Kenny stressed, however, that the costs did not take account of the “scale of the potential which exists for tourism, business, the development of our economy and the presentation in a global sense of our country and its people”.

Mr Kenny said it was the first time in 100 years that a reigning British monarch had visited Ireland and her visit was “the culmination of a great deal of work by a great number of people who brought about a peace situation”.

Mr Kenny said the same applied to Mr Obama’s visit and the “extent of the investment by American business in Ireland”, with the employment of 100,000 people and many more people indirectly.

Mr Higgins called on the Taoiseach to “desist from speaking about US investment in Ireland as if they were here to do us a kindness” when Ireland provided “one of the highest returns on investment anywhere in the world with handsome profits”.

Mr Higgins said everyone in the US knew the reason for Mr Obama’s visit was to “support his re-election campaign and how this will impact on the Irish-American vote”.

He added that it was a “little rich that the taxpayer, as well as bailing out European speculators, now must make a contribution to the re-election campaign of a US president”.

Mr Higgins also said: “In view of the fact that the royal family of Britain is one of the wealthiest families in the world and that this country is figuratively, almost sleeping rough, will the Taoiseach ask the Queen if she might make a contribution towards her own bed and breakfast costs to assist the unfortunate taxpayers and go easier on them”.

Mr Kenny reminded Mr Higgins that “many of the statements you made in the European Parliament where you were dispatched from Dublin West for a period, were not disconnected from your attempts to get back in here”.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams welcomed Mr Obama’s visit, but said that while some might welcome the Queen’s visit, others “have the right to dissent provided they do so peacefully”.

Mr Adams added that Ireland had “yet to make our own history because we are still partitioned”.

The Taoiseach said “Ireland is a free country and visitors are welcome here” and the “vast majority of people will welcome the visits of the Queen of England and President Obama”.