Mick Barry
Question:4. Deputy Mick Barry asked the Taoiseach if he has had contact with outgoing US President, Barack Obama; and if not, his plans to do so before the US President relinquishes his office. [33545/16]
View answerWednesday, 9 November 2016
Questions (4)
Oral answers (10 contributions)
Since taking office I have met with the US President, Barack Obama, on several occasions.
I last met with him in Washington in March for the traditional St. Patrick's Day engagements at the White House. As always, our meeting on that occasion was mutually beneficial and an opportunity to promote Ireland's priorities with the US Administration. I reported to the House in May on my visit to the United States in March for the St. Patrick's Day programme of events, including my meeting with the US President.
I correspond with the US President as appropriate. For example, I wrote to him in June to convey the condolences of the Government and the Irish people following the atrocity and loss of life due to a terrorist attack at a nightclub in Orlando on 12 June of this year.
I anticipate I will be in contact with the US President before he leaves office in January. I would like to take this opportunity to put on the record of the House my best wishes to him, the First Lady, Michelle, and their family for their future endeavours.
Earlier today, I issued a statement and wrote to the President-elect, Donald Trump and Vice-President-elect, Mike Pence, offering my congratulations on their success in the US elections. I wish them well for what is sure to be a challenging and crucially important period ahead.
I will work to ensure that the bonds of friendship and co-operation that have flourished during President Obama's tenure will continue with the new Administration. I look forward to working with the new US Administration to further strengthen the deep friendship between Ireland and the United States which has been fostered over many years.
We now have a racist, sexist, bigoted billionaire in the White House or at least he will be in the White House from the start of the new year. I listened to the Taoiseach's comments today on that issue. He pointed to the acceptance speech made by Donald Trump this morning and expressed the hope that Donald Trump will heal divisions in US society. The Taoiseach has indicated it will be business as usual between the Irish Government and the US Administration.
The Taoiseach might be the only person in the country who believes that Donald Trump is going to heal divisions in US society. He might be the only person in the country who puts great faith and stock in Donald Trump’s words this morning. I remind the Taoiseach that this is a man who has spoken of 11 million deportations from the United States over the coming period.
There are some points to be made about the idea that it is business as usual. The Taoiseach congratulated President-elect Trump. He said that, on behalf of the Government and the people of Ireland, he was pleased to offer our sincere congratulations to Donald J. Trump on his election as the 45th President of the United States. Those sentiments were echoed by the leader of Fianna Fáil. They were added to by a former leader of Fianna Fáil who said we needed to get into a love-in with the new US Administration.
They have also been echoed by Deputy Gerry Adams. Sinn Féin projects itself as a radical left-wing party. I doubt very much if the leader of any other party anywhere in Europe or in the world, which projects itself as radical left-wing, will be standing up today in their parliaments offering congratulations to Donald J. Trump. Deputy Gerry Adams should not be offering congratulations to Donald Trump. Many of his supporters will feel he should not be doing so either.
The Taoiseach said he is offering congratulations on behalf of the people of Ireland. He is not offering them in my name or in the name of AAA-PBP. I am sure many people will support me on this. Instead, the message we would like to project today is one for ordinary American people. It is for those who are facing mass deportations, those LGBTQ, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer, people facing attacks on their rights, and those working people who are facing attacks from an extremely right-wing Administration. We call on those working people, those immigrant communities and those minorities to resist these policies. We offer our support to those communities and to the resistance that is organised.
Earlier, Deputy Ruth Coppinger drew some comparisons between the policies of the Government and the leader of the new US Administration. I would like to make several other comparisons. Mr. Trump has spoken about putting up a wall between the United States and Mexico to stop immigration. There has been a certain amount of tut-tutting in the political establishment in Ireland and Europe about this and the naked way in which those points were explained by Mr. Trump at his rallies. Is there a significant difference between Europe and him? We have a fortress Europe policy in operation in the European Union. We have a policy being implemented in the Mediterranean of physically blocking, stopping and preventing migrants attempting to come to Europe from getting to Europe. Large numbers of migrant men, women and children have drowned as a result of that. Is there a big difference in reality?
Mr. Trump has spoken about punishing women who procure abortions in US states where abortion is not legal. He was forced to qualify his comments when there was a storm of opposition to them. However, he said it while the Administration in this country has actually done it in law. A Bill passed in the lifetime of the last Parliament means that a woman who procures an illegal abortion in this State can, under Irish law as it stands, face a prison sentence of up to 14 years.
The Deputy is straining way beyond the terms of his question.
I will come back to it, a Cheann Comhairle.
Mr. Trump has spoken about reducing US corporation tax from 35% to 15%. His low tax model does not go as far as the Irish Government’s rate of 12.5%. The Irish model has produced huge inequality, poor funding for public services and a race to the bottom.
I was born in the United States of America in the state of Ohio. This gives me a certain insight - I will not say more than that - into American politics and the attitudes of its people. I am strongly of the opinion that if Bernie Sanders had stood as an independent, left, anti-establishment candidate in this presidential election, he could have and would have beaten Donald Trump. It shows the need for the building of a radical, left, anti-establishment alternative. In the United States, there is a two-party system, Democrats and Republicans. In Ireland, there is also a two-party system which has been dominated by Fianna Fáil, on the one hand, and Fine Gael, on the other.
I listened to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, and Deputy Michael McGrath when they made their speeches on the budget a couple of weeks ago. They expressed the hope that the centre would hold. In reality, they expressed the hope that the traditional right-wing parties would hold their grip on Irish politics. I remember thinking that night that the points they were making and hopes they were expressing were off the mark because they underestimated the effects of the policies of recent years on the mass of ordinary people. They underestimated the pain and anger that ordinary people feel and the mood and desire for real change among them.
Unfortunately, Mr. Trump has tapped not only into the reservoir of misogyny and racism but also into the justified anger that tens of millions of ordinary Americans feel because of austerity politics. The lesson in this country and others throughout the world is that the positive sentiment, the mood for change, must be tapped. It must not be tapped by the establishment because the mood is against it. We do not want it to be tapped by the populist right; it must be tapped by the radical left in a positive and progressive way. It must be anti-racist, in favour of women's and workers' rights and anti-establishment. AAA-PBP commits to redoubling its effort to building such a radical-left alternative in this country, as I am sure others will do in other countries.
Could the Deputy commit to giving the Taoiseach an opportunity to reply?
That is a key lesson of the events of the past couple of days. I ask the Taoiseach to comment on the following points. How on earth can he put forward the idea that it is just business as usual and that there has been no change in the past 24 hours?
The Deputy has made all those points before.
I would like the Taoiseach to comment on the points I have made about the similarities between his own policies and those of Mr. Trump.
Four other Deputies have sought to ask supplementary questions. We do not have time for them if we are to get a response from the Taoiseach.
There was one question asked by Deputy Mick Barry, that is, whether I have had contact with outgoing US President Barack Obama and, if not, my plans to do so before he relinquishes office. I have just listened to a seven-minute speech with no question at all.
I remind Deputy Barry that he is an Ohioan. He is living in Ireland and is an Irish citizen. He has freedom of movement in 28 countries in what he calls "Fortress Europe". He can travel to any one of the 28 with impunity. Maybe he does so.
It is business as usual today. The position now is that the new President-elect will take up office on 20 January and appoint a new Administration. I have pointed out to Deputy Adams issues that we regard as important and a priority in our continuing business with the United States. We have always had the support of the United States for the peace process in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday Agreement and we have had continuous discussion on the rights of Irish men and women who happen to be undocumented in the United States. The latter has been a particular bone of contention for us for quite a number of years. We hope the people who voted in the United States have voted for a change of influence in terms of the Congress and Senate. Now that they will be controlled by the Republican Party, we hope they will put forward a comprehensive immigration Bill to deal with the undocumented Irish.
The Deputy seems not to accept the democratic result of the vote of the people of the United States. They voted by secret ballot and decided to elect Mr. Trump as their 45th President. He is to take office on 20 January 2017. I am not sure the Deputy is entitled to give out to the Americans about the decision they made. The Deputy is elected by people, and he is entitled to be. Everybody supports that democratic decision. However, if the Deputy wants to give out about the people in the United States, through AAA-PBP, he should go over to Ohio, start there and campaign strongly against what he believes to be a decision that is anti-democratic.
We will work with the new Administration, just as we have worked with all Administrations over the past 50 years, in the interest of developing economic and social links between Ireland and the United States. Circumstances are different from what they used to be. Although we relied for centuries on help from the United States, there are now 100,000 people employed by Irish-owned companies across 50 states. That is the kind of development we would like to see in the time ahead.