Last year Bill Thompson, the New York City Comptroller, took the courageous decision, supported by the City Pension Fund Trustees, to commit $150 million to investments which will bring significant projects to the north of Ireland.
Perhaps of even greater significance is the contractual obligation within the decision that any investment must promote equality of opportunity, and to adhere to principles of economic justice.
Thomas DiNapoli, the New York State Comptroller, is now actively considering an investment decision based on similar equality and social justice outcomes.
This is a long way from my first visit to New York 15 years ago this month. At that time I was in the Big Apple on my special 48 hour visa courtesy of President Clinton and the hard work of Irish America.
The warmth of the welcome from Irish America, the huge interest from the media, and the bitter and powerful opposition from the British government, combined to make it a memorable visit.
It was one of those key landmark events along the road to building a viable Irish peace process that could deliver solutions to the divisions and instabilities and conflict in the north of Ireland, and the centuries old crisis in Irish-Anglo relations.
Four years later, in 1998, the main parties in the North – minus the DUP – and the Irish and British governments, with the U.S. actively in the wings, produced the Good Friday agreement.
Two years ago, the DUP finally came in from the cold and Ian Paisley and myself reached an historic agreement that saw the establishment of the current Executive.
It has been a long journey with many ups and downs but significant progress has been achieved in recent years. Where once there was daily conflict and a political system built on the exclusion of nationalists and republicans, there is now a government in place with nationalists and republicans at its heart and it based on equality.
This shift away from conflict, and the construction of what is a unique all-Ireland political architecture, is an enormous achievement.
But the legacy of those years of inequality, of oppression and conflict means that there remains a huge amount of work to be done around social and economic problems, including equality and justice issues, as well as resolving key constitutional matters like partition, and the continuing British jurisdiction in Ireland.
One particular consequence of British policy, and of partition, is the existence of structured religious and political discrimination against nationalists and Catholics.
This practice is part of our colonial past and was entrenched after partition by decades of unionist domination, and then 30 years of direct British rule. As a result, many communities still suffer high levels of disadvantage and deprivation.
This is among the most important challenges facing us in the time ahead. If the peace process is to have any meaning, and if public confidence in our endeavors is to be sustained, then the new political dispensation must deliver real results on the ground. Disadvantaged communities must see real change in their lives.
At the heart of all of this is the economy. In the past, economic development has been skewed in favor of the unionist section of our people and has been concentrated in certain, favored, geographical locations. This inequality and injustice is unacceptable.
Economic development must mirror and affirm the political changes that have taken place in recent times. Those communities which have been denied economic opportunity and have borne the brunt of 30 years of conflict, must be the first to benefit from changed political and economic approaches.
All of this takes place against the very difficult backdrop of the global economic downturn and recession. But the difficulties in the world economy are not an excuse for inaction.
The investment decisions by the New York City Comptroller, and hopefully the State Comptroller, which are coupled with very clear equality conditions, set a very important precedent for others who are considering similar investment.
These decisions, therefore, become more than economic investments. They are also investments in peace and justice. They are a clear recognition that sustainable economic development and socio-economic stability are increasingly interdependent.
Building a more equal society is central to delivering a sustainable economy.
The Executive in the north of Ireland is attempting to develop innovative investment measures that contribute to this objective. These measures will address disadvantage and target resources at those in greatest need, whilst building economic prosperity.
Ethical and socially conscious investment from the United States, particularly from the pension funds of public sector workers, enhances the economic, social and environmental pillars of the sustainable development agenda to which the Executive is committed.
As the Executive’s public procurement policies assert, a progressive economic agenda can be advanced through building the promotion of equality into the language and practice of contractors and tenders, as the City Comptroller has done.
The key is ensuring that enhanced economic growth also tackles existing patterns of inequality.
So, in the time ahead, Sinn F