The First Minister and Deputy First Minister have said they will work with the newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump “for the benefit of Northern Ireland”, as Michelle O’Neill says she will judge a potential invitation to the White House for St Patrick’s Day should it arrive.
Both leaders were speaking today at the formal launch of the Strategic Framework to End Violence Against Women and Girls regional plan at The Pavilion in Stormont Estate.
The plan sees an additional £1.2m of funding to work with organisations across the UK in ending violence against women.
“This is very much a focus on prevention — £1.2m that comes on the back following our recent announcement of £2m as part of our Community Change fund which goes to providing prevention work across towns and villages in the North,” the First Minister said of the plan, which sees Northern Ireland work with charities such as Nexus and Barnardos.
Read more
“Violence against women and girls is absolutely wrong. We are dismayed by the levels of violence in Northern Ireland, and we are determined to do everything we can to work with partners to tackle this issue. We are conscious that the government cannot do this alone,” added Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly.
“This is just the start. It’s not the totality of our plans; we have the local scheme in place but now we are working with regional organisations.”
Speaking about US President Donald Trump, who on Monday was inaugurated in Washington for his second term, both the First and Deputy First Minister said their relationship with the new leader will be focused on Northern Ireland’s economy.
“I want to congratulate President Trump on his inauguration. Like we have said before, we work with the US President no matter who that person is,” said Ms Little-Pengelly.
“We look forward to building a constructive relationship with the President and the Vice President, who, of course, has those links with Ulster-Scots in his family,” she added.
“We haven’t received [St Patrick’s Day celebrations] invites yet, but we do look forward to receiving them.”
US Vice President JD Vance has previously referred to himself as a self-proclaimed “Scots-Irish hillbilly at heart”.
Ms O’Neill added that Northern Ireland’s relationship with the US President is “crucially important to the peace process”, but told reporters she does not agree with him on certain issues.
“We all have our own personal views on Donald Trump himself, and particularly his views, and then even his views expressed yesterday in terms of our LGBTQ+ community. I won’t agree with him. I would never agree with him,” she said.
“Where I will engage is in what’s in the best interest [of Northern Ireland]. He is the President. He is the people of America’s choice. He’s the President of the United States.
“So when it comes to our engagement, it will be on our interest [in] economic growth. It will be on investment. It will be on the Irish peace process.
“Beyond that, I doubt I would share too much common ground with Donald Trump.”
Ms O’Neill, when asked if she hoped President Trump would be appointing a US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland — which he did not do in his last presidency — said: “It has never hurt us in the past.”
“We saw in the past how it has been important in terms of investment and having someone that we can work with in terms of investment,” she added.
“If he is going to, we do not know that at this stage, but it has never hurt us in the past. The envoys have played significant roles in different ways in the past.
“We [most recently] had Joe Kennedy as an economic envoy. We worked quite closely with him in a lot of areas. So anything that helps to grow our economy, then that’s something we are obviously keen to engage further with.”
Ms Little-Pengelly also said she expects a Trump presidency to bring a “different investment global context”.
“I think that’s what most are predicting,” she said.
“But we will be doing our best to build those very positive relationships, to continue with those relationships we’ve already built on, and to encourage those companies that perhaps have invested here in the past, or invest across the UK and Ireland, to consider coming to Northern Ireland to invest.”
During the press conference, the Deputy First Minister said the NI Secretary Hilary Benn was “wrong” to refuse the Stormont Brake on Monday, after all unionist Assembly members backed a (DUP) motion to pull the brake in a bid to stop changes to EU rules on packaging and labelling of chemicals.
“The Secretary of State was wrong to refuse that request, which was not just made by the DUP, but every designated unionist in the Assembly. We have to remember, the Stormont Brake is there to prevent that divergence, and there are a number of ways to do that.
“Ideally, you don’t want the Brake to have to be pulled; you want the UK Government to be able to take those actions to prevent it at an earlier stage.
“On this issue, I welcome the Secretary of State, who has said he will deal with any issues of divergence, and we will be keeping a close eye on that.”
News Catch Up – Tuesday 21 January