Taoiseach to urge continued investment on US visit

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen begins a four-day visit to the US today during which he will visit the New York Stock Exchange and meet prominent Irish Americans on Wall Street.

In his first major trip as Taoiseach, Mr Cowen will urge continued investment in Ireland and promote Irish companies seeking to develop or expand in the US.

Mr Cowen has already been overseas as Taoiseach, visiting Brussels for an EU leaders’ summit which came less than a week after Ireland’s rejection of the Lisbon Treaty, and travelling to France over the weekend for another summit.

Mr Cowen remained in Paris yesterday morning to attend the Bastille Day celebrations at the invitation of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, before flying home last evening.

He departs for New York this morning, and his first official engagement is at 5.20pm local time (10.20pm Irish), when he will honour Ireland’s older emigrants to the US by opening a photographic exhibition at the Irish Arts Centre on West 51st Street.

The exhibition, To Love Two Countries: Ireland’s Greatest Generation in America, is by Cork-based portrait photographer John Minihan and focuses on some of the older generation of Irish emigrants.

They include Sister Victor Waters, 104 this year, who emigrated from her native Galway in 1925 and now lives in New Jersey, and Rose Cosgrave, 100, from Co Longford, who led her county’s contingent up Fifth Avenue in this year’s St Patrick’s Day parade in New York.

Tomorrow morning, Mr Cowen will visit the New York Stock Exchange and is expected to ring the opening bell. There will also be a business breakfast at the stock exchange organised by Enterprise Ireland, the state agency which helps Irish businesses develop in overseas markets.

Following the stock exchange, Mr Cowen will travel to City Hall to meet with New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who recently attended the US-Northern Ireland investment conference in Belfast. Tomorrow afternoon, the Taoiseach will pay a visit to the World Trade Tribute Centre to honour those who died in the 9-11 terrorist attacks. He will attend a reception for the Irish community in New York tomorrow night.

On Thursday, Mr Cowen will attend a promotional event for Tourism Ireland and a business lunch organised by the IDA, the state agency responsible for the attraction of foreign investment.

Tomorrow night, he will attend the “Wall Street 50” dinner, an annual event honouring prominent Irish Americans on Wall Street.

The Taoiseach is scheduled to fly home on Friday.