PRESIDENT Clinton has given assurances that principles on non discrimination in employment in Northern Ireland will be applied by the US government.
His failure to sign a Bill incorporating the MacBride principles several months ago has been strongly criticised by some Irish American organisations.
The veto of that Bill was also at variance with the party platform approved here this week at the Democratic convention which supports the MacBride principles. The Republican convention approved a similar plank.
In a letter this week to Mr Brian Attwood, the head of the Agency for International Development which channels official US aid to the International Fund for Ireland, the President said he was "committed to equal opportunity and fair employment as necessary foundations for a just, peaceful and prosperous future for all the people of both jurisdictions in Ireland".
Mr Clinton did not specifically refer to the MacBride principles, but he asked Mr Attwood and the US observer to the fund, Mr Jim Lyons, "to ensure" that the safeguards in the principles were carried out "to the greatest extent possible". He was careful to say that the US contribution "must not be used to require or mandate quotas or reverse discrimination by individuals or entities assisted with such contributions".
Referring to his veto of the foreign affairs Bill, the President said this was done "for reasons entirely unrelated" to the section which dealt with the International Fund. This section says US contributions to the fund "should be used in a manner that effectively increases employment opportunities in communities with rates of unemployment higher than the local or urban average of unemployment in Northern Ireland".
Mr Brian O'Dwyer, the New York lawyer who helps organise the Irish for Clinton Gore organisation said here yesterday that President Clinton was now enforcing the MacBride principles "by executive fiat".
Most of the 50 states in the US have enacted the principles, so public body pension funds observe them if investing in Northern Ireland. Mr Clinton's letter formalises what has been the practice.
Mr O'Dwyer was speaking at a rally of Irish Americans attending the Democratic convention who are working for the re election of Mr Clinton. Speaker after speaker praised him as the first President to get involved in Northern Ireland and to take risks in supporting the peace process.
The president of the powerful AFL CIO union, Mr John Sweeney, whose father came from Co Leitrim, urged Irish Americans to vote for Mr Clinton. His union is spending millions of dollars targeting Republican congressmen in vulnerable seats.