Visit to Canada of His Excellency Dr. Rory O’Hanlon, Chairman of the House of Representatives of Ireland and His Excellency Rory Kiely, Chairman of the Senate of Ireland

From September 19 to 23, 2006, His Excellency Dr. Rory O’Hanlon, Chairman of the House of Representatives of Ireland, and His Excellency Rory Kiely, Chairman of the Senate of Ireland, led a delegation of Members of the House of Representatives on an official visit to Ottawa, Kingston and Toronto, at the invitation of the Speaker of the Senate, the Honourable Noël A. Kinsella and the Speaker of the House of Commons, the Honourable Peter Milliken. The delegation was composed of Mr. Séamus Pattison, T.D., Deputy Speaker, Mr. Michael Smith, T.D., Mr. Paudge Connolly, T.D., Mr. Peter Kelly, T.D., Mr. Dinny McGinley, T.D., Mr. Michael D. Higgins, T.D. and Ms. Cáit Hayes, Secretary to the delegation.

In Ottawa, the delegation held meetings with:

• The Honourable Noël A. Kinsella, Speaker of the Senate;
• The Honourable Peter Milliken Speaker of the House of Commons;
• The Honourable Tony Clement, P.C., Minister of Health;
• Mr. Jason Kenney, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister;
• Mr. Deepak Obhrai, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs;
• Mr. Kevin Sorenson, Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs;
• Members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of the House of Commons; and
• Dr. Yvon Martel, Chief Scientist, International, Agriculture Canada.

In Toronto, the delegation met with:

• Mr. Joe Tascona, Second Deputy Chair of the Committee of the Whole House, Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

The purpose of the visit was to reinforce the very close ties between Canada and Ireland. Dr. O’Hanlon was particularly interested in expressing Ireland’s thanks for Canada’s support of the Northern Ireland peace process and the International Funds for Ireland.

The issue of development assistance programs were raised in meetings with both Mr. Sorenson and Mr. Obhrai. The Irish delegation was also interested in discussing Canada’s roles in Afghanistan and Haiti. As the issue of health was of great concern to several members of the delegation, the topics of wait times, providing services to remote locations and public versus private health systems were discussed with Minister Clement. These issues, along with the responsibilities of provincial governments and the federal government, were again raised in the meeting with Mr. Tascona.

The delegation made site visits to the Central Experimental Farm to learn about organic farming practices in Canada and to the Canadian Border Services Agency at Lansdowne, Ontario, to gain knowledge of the systems used to manage Canada’s border with the United States.

Throughout the visit, many of the talks focussed on the strong links between Canada and Ireland, arising from both the Irish heritage of many Canadians and the shared values of the two countries.