Battling With The Sirens
The First and Deputy First Ministers had to battle with Manhattan's omnipresent sirens when they arrived at the New York City Comptrollers' office for today's announcement of a multi million investment fund for Northern Ireland. However the cacophony was appropriate, given that the cash under discussion comes from the pension funds of New York's firefighters, police, teachers and other public workers.
The headline figure we have all been given is $150 million. But you can stretch that in both directions. If you want to go up you can note that the New York City cash is due to be supplemented by other contributions (probably from areas like Boston, New York State and California) to make an estimated $750 million dollar Emerald equity fund.
If you want to minimise the impact, you can note that the Comptroller's statement talks about "more than half" of the $150 million being spent in NI and the border counties, whilst the other half could go on "green investment" in North America.
Still at a time of a global credit crunch, it would seem a bit churlish to talk this down too soon. Observers will have to keep an eye on the Emerald Fund and see how it works out in practice.
The fund intends to back infrastructure projects including renewable energy, waste management and our water service. As I made my way up to New York from Washington this morning I read a column from the Comptroller, William Thompson, in the New York Post. He wasn't writing about Northern Ireland, but claiming that New Yorkers were being over taxed for their water. Now why does that sound familiar?
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