New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg's take on all things Irish

Undocumented don’t use our hospitals much. Why? Because most of us use three quarters of our medical expenses in the last three years of our life, and these are young people who come here. And the argument that undocumented take jobs away from Americans is just not true. You cannot get Americans generally to do these jobs.

Now you can say wait a minute and pay them more, but if you did that, yes, more Americans would take them, but the organizations couldn’t survive.  Golf courses can’t survive if they have high-cost grass cutters.

To answer your question on what do you do, it’s the elected officials. They are cowed, and it’s not Republican or Democrat, it is to some extent geographical.

Here in New York City you would never hear somebody complain about immigration. On the other hand, you don’t have to go very far, just go to Nassau and Suffolk counties, and Westchester, although Nassau and Suffolk seem to be the worst, and you can see …

who the hell cuts their lawn? Who the hell builds the things?

It’s all undocumented. It’s like people who believe in creationism. I always wondered, what doctor do you go to?  You want a doctor that doesn’t believe in science?!

What I can do for local government is make sure that we welcome immigrants, and that people understand how valuable they are.

You’ve been to Ireland several times. What’s your lasting memory? 

Well, I did have a six and a half hour dinner at Bono’s with Penelope Cruz sitting across the table from me -- I’ll remember that! Javier Bardem was there but I didn’t know who he was!

Bono’s a great guy. It was his daughter’s birthday, and back in New York it was my oldest daughter’s birthday, so he grabbed my phone...

Your daughter had an Irish boyfriend?

That’s the younger one. She dumped him.  The latest one is English who was born in Philadelphia. She’s in Europe, and wants to go to Ascot because he’s in the horse business. She said, ‘Where do I go to buy a hat?’ I said, ‘Your mother’s English, call her and ask her.’

But I think, seriously, you walk away with a feeling of determination, rational, reasonableness. When I drive down the street, I look for a few things. I think how many blocks can you go before you see a piece of trash in the streets? And do people have smiles on their faces?

And you see a lot of smiles in Ireland, and in the North. Nobody has got this grimace on their face, the nasty look, they seem reasonable. But nice people.

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Nster.com