IN/0367

Presidential praise for peace and Ireland's open economy
By Michael O'Toole
Dublin Correspondent

BILL Clinton yesterday hailed two of Ireland's greatest modern success stories - the peace process and the Celtic tiger economy.
And addressing business, community and trade union leaders in Dublin yesterday morning, the president declared "there has never been a better time to be Irish".
He also told assembled guests at a reception in the Royal College of Surgeons that there would have been no Belfast agreement without the key input of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
He said: "You've overwhelmingly voted for peace and your constant leadership for the peace process over the last several years are the most important things.
"I would like to thank you on behalf of the American people for what you have done.
"I can also say to Prime Minister Ahern that peace literally would not have happened in my judgement if it hadn't been for him. He led a campaign sometimes under great personal duress. "He had been terrifically effective in working with Prime Minister Blair and all the parties in both communities."
Mr Ahern said one of the most memorable parts of his visit to Ireland was the determination of people traumatised in Omagh that the peace process should continue - despite their own pain and suffering.
He said: "The most important thing that Hillary and I saw in Omagh yesterday was that even the people who have suffered the most from the testers of the peace don't want to give into them.
"They don't want to go back. They want to summon their strength and courage and lean on their friends and neighbours and go forward."
The president poured praise on Ireland's booming, open economy where 74,000 people are employed by 500 US subsidiaries.
He said Ireland's economy could be a model for other nations.
Mr Clinton said: "I'd like to thank Ireland for setting a good example by building bridges to other nations by being such and open economy, by encouraging business ventures from around the world and by working together here at home.
"The Irish story is a truly astonishing thing that I believe can be a model for nations large and small throughout the world.
"I hope you will continue to be a model of an open economy were people work together instead of fight with each other to increase wealth, employment, opportunity, and social harmony.
"The rest of the world has an enormous stake in the way your society conducts itself in your economic success in your social harmony and in your passion for peace.
"You are doing much better than any of the rest of us could ever have dreamed or hoped for and the world is in your debt."
He repeated his belief that the United States could use the Irish model as a way of convincing other trouble spots around the world that peace was possible.
Shortly before the president's speech Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the 550 guests that the government was to provide £3 million in funding for a scholarship to bring top US students to Irish universities.
The programme - named after former talks chairman senator George Mitchell - is modelled on the Rhodes scholarship to Oxford for gifted US students in which Bill Clinton took part in the late 1960s. Mr Clinton joined with the guests in observing a minute's silence for the 229 people who died when a Swiss air plane crashed off the coast of Canada on Thursday morning.