Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland Martin McGuinness has told the Ictu conference that he has a good and positive working relationship with First Minister Ian Paisley and that he believes the new institutions will last.
Mr McGuinness said he had known for the past two years that Dr Paisley was going to do a deal with Sinn Féin. He said that he enjoyed a good relationship with Dr Paisley despite their different backgrounds.
"For 25 years I did not like Ian Paisley and for 25 years he probably liked me less," he said. Mr McGuinness said "small-minded" critics of a seven-minister delegation which travelled to the US last week had missed the point completely.
"Every time the DUP, the SDLP or Sinn Féin had gone to the United States previously we always went on our own with our own message. This time we were leading a united government to the US. I can tell you it made a major impact on Capitol Hill with congress people, with senators, at the state department, with corporate America, with Irish America," he said.
