Remarks by President Obama and the Taoiseach of Ireland Brian Cowen
11:26 A.M. EDT
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good morning, everybody. First of all, I just want to congratulate this sound person right here for having the green earmuffs. (Laughter.) Now, I haven’t seen that before. Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everybody.
Before I talk a little bit about the strong and enduring bond between the American and Irish people, I just want to thank Congress for passing this morning the HIRE Act. It is the first of what I hope will be a series of jobs packages that help to continue to put people back to work all across America.
This bill will provide tax cuts to small businesses that are willing to begin hiring right now, putting people back to work. It’s also going to provide significant tax breaks to businesses for investing in their business, and so, hopefully, at a time when we’re starting to see an upswing in the economic growth, that will help sustain it. And the bill also will continue to improve our ability to finance infrastructure projects all across the country.
I also want to say to the Republicans who voted for this bill that I appreciate their willingness to work with Democrats in a bipartisan fashion to get America moving again. And as I said, I hope that on a series of future steps that we take to help small businesses get financing, to help improve our infrastructure around the country, to put people back to work, that we’re going to see more progress on that front.
I want to thank the Taoiseach for coming here today. Last year we had the opportunity to get to know each other and had a wonderful time during St. Patrick’s Day. Thirty-six million Americans claim Irish ancestry -– I’m sure more do on St. Patrick’s Day. And it’s a testament I think to how close our two countries are that America has been shaped culturally, politically, economically by the incredible contributions of Irish Americans. Those bonds endure. And in our meeting we reaffirmed how important it is for us to continue a strong partnership across a whole host of issues.
I thanked the Taoiseach for the assistance that they’ve provided on critical international issues. We use the facilities in Ireland for transit for our military troops to Afghanistan. The Irish police are providing training in Afghanistan
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