Criticism of the visit by seven Stormont Ministers to the US last week was "small-minded" and "ignorant", the North's Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said yesterday.
Mr McGuinness led the visit to the Smithsonian Festival in Washington DC where, he claimed, they had made "a massive impression".
The scale of the Stormont delegation was criticised by Alliance leader David Ford, who said two Ministers would have sufficed.
However, the Deputy First Minister claimed Americans had viewed the arrival of the powersharing Ministers as "one of the great news stories of the world today".
"This was the first time they had seen us together and I think it had an absolutely massive impact on them."
Speaking privately yesterday, some Ministers involved in the trip claimed long-term benefits would follow.
Mr McGuinness agreed, saying: "I would be very hopeful the visit will pay big dividends for us in the months and years ahead. There is no doubt that the people we were engaging with are determined to deliver. I am engaged with people in the business of trying to deliver for the people we represent here and I think we have made a very, very good start."
The Assembly was told that a new form of dentists' contract would be tried out in an effort to spread dental services to parts of Northern Ireland badly served under the National Health Service.
Health Minister Michael McGimpsey told members work was under way on the scheme and that the high levels of dental decay, especially among children, made the policy essential.
The debate was initiated by SDLP member Tommy Gallagher who cited the lack of NHS dental provision in his Fermanagh-South Tyrone constituency. He was supported by the DUP's Iris Robinson who chairs the health committee at Stormont. The motion was carried without a vote.
In another debate Sinn Fein East Derry member Francie Brolly, whose father died in a site accident, called for construction companies to be held responsible for site safety. He said eight lives were lost and nearly 90 people were badly hurt on site last year.
He criticised what he saw as the lack of accountability for this. "A corporation, a company can be responsible as a corporation for a death but nobody has ever served a day in jail for negligence."