US PRESIDENT Barack Obama wants to visit Ireland and at some future stage would “definitely” plan to come here, newly appointed US ambassador to Ireland Daniel M Rooney has said.
Mr Rooney presented his letters of credence to President Mary McAleese at Áras an Uachtaráin yesterday, accompanied by his wife, Patricia, and grandchildren Dan and Meghan. Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin was also in attendance.
In a press conference afterwards at a Dublin hotel, Mr Rooney said he had discussed the prospects for an Irish visit with Mr Obama: “Well I know that he wants to come. When things settle down, he definitely would plan it.”
Mr Rooney said they had discussed the possibility that Mr Obama could include Ireland on the schedule for “one of his trips to, you know, Europe or maybe the Far East or somewhere, if he could come back this way it would be good”.
But the ambassador was reluctant to speculate on the timing of any presidential visit: “His schedule right now is so full it’s difficult to see when it would be.”
Mr Rooney was vague about the prospects for a bilateral arrangement on immigration between the US and Ireland, similar to the E3 visa available to Australian college graduates on a two-year renewable basis.
“I think right now with the situation that exists with immigration generally for America, it’s hard to pinpoint that you’re going to do something for just one country,” he said.
Explaining the background, he said: “Congress is going to debate this and they have to look at it in its entirety, you can’t just make one rule for Ireland as you can imagine. But there is interest there, there is interest, we do understand the issues.
“I just arrived so I have not talked to the Government about this at all, and will do so, and talk to our own people. I have had some conversations with the people at the State Department and things like that, and in the Congress,” he said.
With regard to Mr Obama’s plan to tighten up the domestic tax requirements for US companies investing in other countries such as Ireland, Mr Rooney said: “Well, I think that they have to pay their taxes. What those taxes would be, of course, has to be looked at, has to be voted on by the Congress and signed by the president.”
The ambassador said he had no views as to whom the Obama administration should appoint to succeed Paula Dobriansky as US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland. “Not really,” he said, but added that the embassy would work with whoever the president chose for the job.
Clearly relishing his new appointment, Mr Rooney said: “I’m very pleased to be here, I’m honoured that President Obama would select me to be the ambassador and I have great feel and regard for Ireland, have had for a long time, so it’s terrific to be here.”
Despite his long connections with Ireland and the Rooney family’s roots in Newry, Co Down, he reminded his listeners that his first duty was to the president: “Let’s say this, I’m like St John the Baptist, I bring the message.”
The ambassador addressed a function organised by the American Chamber of Commerce yesterday where, according to a supplied script, he urged his audience to “work closely with institutions of higher education as an investment in the future”.
Well-known in the US as chairman of the current Super Bowl champions the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mr Rooney was one of the founders of the American Ireland Funds for the promotion of peace, and has also funded the annual Rooney Prize for Irish Literature.
