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Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader Simon Harris pictured last week in Portlaoise © RollingNews.ie

Simon Harris says Ireland will work with Trump, but must prepare for impact on economy and Ukraine

The Taoiseach noted that US elections “are always consequential beyond their own borders”.

TAOISEACH SIMON HARRIS has said Ireland will work with the Trump administration, as the country did during his previous term in office, but should prepare for the impact of his presidency on the economy and Ukraine.

Speaking to reporters in Budapest ahead of a European Council meeting, Harris said, as far as he knows, his office has requested a phone call with US president-elect Trump.

“I hope to be in a position to speak to president-elect Trump and to congratulate him,” the Taoiseach said today.

“President Trump has won the election in the United States decisively, and obviously the European Union and Ireland will now work with the democratically elected president-elect of the United States.”

Harris noted that US elections “are always consequential beyond their own borders”, and both Ireland and the EU will “assess what President Trump may do” – and what impact this could have on the economy and European security.

He said European leaders will discuss “how we can best prepare to deal with the new administration”, adding this will likely involve setting money aside for any potential shocks to the economy.

“One of the very reasons we have put money aside into funds to protect for the future is to make sure that if there is any shock to the Irish economy in the years ahead, or to the European economy, or any sort of transatlantic trade shock, that actually there is a buffer in place in the Irish economy.”

‘Insurance policy’ 

When asked how concerned he is about a second Trump presidency, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe echoed the sentiment of needing to put money aside.

He told reporters in Dublin he will challenge anyone who argues that existing government surpluses should be spent, saying they act as an “insurance policy” for the years ahead.

I’ve been arguing about the need not to spend all the money that is available to us each year, to set some of that aside to be able to deal with the unforeseen events around the corner.

He argued this was the right approach when it came to the Covid-19 pandemic and said “surely it will be shown to be the right approach as we now enter into a period of very big change within the global economy”.

unnamed (6) Paschal Donohoe speaking to reporters in Dublin today © RollingNews.ie © RollingNews.ie

“We are now in a situation that for last year, we ran a budget surplus in excess of €8 billion.

“The same will happen again this year, and this money will be absolutely vital to help us deal with any changes that could occur in the years ahead due to changes in global trade and in global taxation.

“And for that reason, it underpins the need to continue to build budget surpluses in the future,” Donohoe added. 

Tax rate 

Concerns have been raised of late that a reworking of US tax law could eventually lead to a major drop in Ireland’s corporate tax take.

When asked if he is concerned that Trump’s proposals to overhaul tax legislation could led to a large outflow of foreign direct investment from US companies currently based in Ireland, Harris said no.

“We obviously need to continue to monitor all of this closely, and we do need to be aware that the risk of a transatlantic trade shock has now increased.”

The Fine Gael leader said companies locate in countries “for many reasons, not just tax”.

“Ireland has always offered not just a competitive tax offering, and not just worked at a global level in terms of settling those tax issues in terms of rates, but we’ve also offered talent.

We’ve also offered access to the European Union. We’ve also offered being a country that can bridge the Atlantic in terms of the US and the EU.

“And I think all of those things remain a reality after the outcome of the presidential election.”

Ukraine

Speaking about the impact of a Trump presidency on the war in Ukraine, Harris said more investment in defence and security is needed across Europe including Ireland.

“Just because you’re militarily neutral, it doesn’t mean that you’re immune from those risks.”

He denied this will impact Ireland’s military neutrality, saying that “is not up for discussion”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to attend today’s European Council meeting and Harris said he is looking forward to speaking to him directly.

“Europe has to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We cannot have a situation where a country can, through aggression, through illegal war, annex people’s territories,” Harris stated. 

He said the EU and other leaders such as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will work together in efforts “to chart a way forward to bring peace to Ukraine”.

Contains reporting by Jane Matthews

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    Mute mickmc
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:03 AM

    What’s the betting we soon have a labour shortage in this country again. Of course we still have the 5-10% of the labour force who are quiet happy to sit back and live off the rest of us.

    225
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    Mute Dub_Right
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:27 AM

    @mickmc: I think they are referring to the lack of qualified staff with the right knowledge, skills and experience needed to operate a high tech business or manufacturing operation.
    Ireland needs to sort out it’s severe housing and transport issues in order to ensure people who emigrate to Ireland have somewhere to live.
    As well as reducing the tax burden on highly skilled staff who may command salaries internationally of €100k++

    As for your 5 to 10% who are “Happy to sit back” just stop the chimp comment and realise that the figure you have chosen could contain those in training, out of work due to illness or pregnancy, those made redundant and seeking employment. Or who due to age for example find obtaining work extremely challenging..

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    Mute mickmc
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:30 AM

    @Dub_Right: excuse excuses excuses.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:39 AM

    @mickmc: you’re never going to get 100% employment. Ever.

    34
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    Mute mickmc
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 9:13 AM

    @Deborah Behan: well if there was less incentives to stay on it we probably could get to 98-99%.

    22
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    Mute CeannairBlue
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:02 AM

    @Deborah Behan: True – due to the reason stated.

    The “we will work only when there are jobs paying what we believe we are worth”.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:07 AM

    @Dub_Right: Not sure what these ‘knowledge skills’ you refer to are. Surely there are plenty of jobs which require common sense skills and energy to perform and learn rather than having to produce a piece of paper from a third level institution.

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    Mute Bossman Ben
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:37 PM

    @mickmc: you’re a typical keyboard warrior and probably a cynical dick on top ..

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    Mute Bobby Phelan
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 3:47 PM

    @Dub_Right: don’t expect ff fg to sort any thing out there the ones that created this mess along with their buddies liebour

    3
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    Mute Connolly Association
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:11 AM

    Does anyone know if IBEC have ever been right before…about anything?

    101
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    Mute Chucky Arlaw
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:42 AM

    @Connolly Association: they’re right more regularly than all those groups with Connolly in their names

    78
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    Mute Barney Dooley
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:57 AM

    @Connolly Association:
    Concepts of right and wrong are irrelevant to Ibec. They will always support the interests of the minority capitalist class and oppose the working class. In the same way the esteemed consultants E&Y quoted were “wrong” when they needed to be about Anglo’s accounts and missed the €7 billion (that’s a 7 and 9 zeroes ) in loans flying between Irish Life & Permanent and the bank just a few weeks before Anglo reported it’s accounts.

    http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/ernst-young-may-face-disciplinary-hearing-over-anglo-irish-bank-34933762.html

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    Mute Colin Moran
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 11:07 AM

    @Barney Dooley: You really are a toothache looking for a tooth Wally. If it rained liquid gold you’d complain about getting wet.

    25
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    Mute Robert Woodward
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 11:20 AM

    @Colin Moran: Improvements in the economy are trouble for Wally and his politics. The hard left need unemployment and recession to increase their support, the trouble is when the economy improves that small increase of support (and we are talking just 4 to 5 % here) they have got over the last few years will fall away.They will move from being irrelevant to completely irrelevant.

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    Mute Barney Dooley
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:55 PM

    @Robert Woodward:

    Our future is secure then as late stage parasitic capitalism drives more and more of the population into poverty to continue to enrich the oligarchy:

    “George Magnus, a senior economic analyst at UBS bank, wrote an article with the intriguing title: “Give Karl Marx a Chance to Save the World Economy”. Switzerland-based UBS is a pillar of the financial establishment, with offices in more than 50 countries and over $2 trillion in assets. Yet in an essay for Bloomberg View, Magnus wrote that “today’s global economy bears some uncanny resemblances to what Marx foresaw.”
    In his article he starts by describing policy makers “struggling to understand the barrage of financial panics, protests and other ills afflicting the world” and suggests that they would do well to study the works of “a long-dead economist, Karl Marx.”
    “Consider, for example, Marx’s prediction of how the inherent conflict between capital and labor would manifest itself. As he wrote in Das Kapital, companies’ pursuit of profits and productivity would naturally lead them to need fewer and fewer workers, creating an ‘industrial reserve army’ of the poor and unemployed: ‘Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time accumulation of misery’.”
    He continues:
    “The process he [Marx] describes is visible throughout the developed world, particularly in the U.S. Companies’ efforts to cut costs and avoid hiring have boosted U.S. corporate profits as a share of total economic output to the highest level in more than six decades, while the unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent and real wages are stagnant.
    “U.S. income inequality, meanwhile, is by some measures close to its highest level since the 1920s. Before 2008, the income disparity was obscured by factors such as easy credit, which allowed poor households to enjoy a more affluent lifestyle. Now the problem is coming home to roost.”

    http://www.marxist.com/karl-marx-130-years.htm

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    Mute Colin Moran
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 1:03 PM

    @Barney Dooley:ah Wally, you’re poor little brain must get in an awful tizzy when you have to constantly rummage through your files to cite someone who said something about something. The rest of us just live our lives like normal, knowing that the world is not, nor will ever be, perfect but that capitalism is here to stay no matter how much you click your diamond slippers and wish it away.

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    Mute Colin Moran
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 1:15 PM

    @Barney Dooley: Oh Wally, by the way, is that the same George Magnus that said on 21st March in Prospect magazine:

    “The US, though, is the single most important part of the world’s economic jigsaw. As I commented here recently, the Federal Reserve’s decision two weeks ago to raise interest rates for the third time since the financial crisis is being taken as a sign of confidence. After an extraordinarily long inventory rundown, lasting five quarters, the US economy is perkier, growing by 3.5 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively, in the last two quarters of 2016. The early indications for the start of 2017 are mixed, but employment growth has been firm, there has been some gentle rise in wages and labour force participation, and we have yet to see any impact from the Trump Administration’s spending and tax policies. Even if financial markets are exaggerating the growth boost from his tax and infrastructure policies, there should be some positive impact on growth in 2017, and a slightly bigger one in 2018.

    What could go wrong? Unfortunately, quite a lot. Political risk looms large over the current expansion. The Dutch may have dodged a bullet in last week’s elections, but there are more battles to fight against resurgent populism and the restrictive, protectionist economic policies that populists embrace. Politics aside, though, economic expansions can’t be milked forever. Imbalances emerge over time, and someone’s balance sheet—whether it belongs to the government, companies, banks or households, deteriorates to the point where it threatens and then undermines the business cycle.”

    So he’s positive about the global markets, employment, anti-restriction, anti-protectionist and anti-populist as well as his comments about the government balance sheet making total shite out of your nonsense about governments never having to be in debt etc.
    hmmmmmmm.

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    Mute Barney Dooley
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 3:54 PM

    @Colin Moran:

    “you’re poor little brain must get in an awful tizzy when you have to constantly rummage through your files to cite someone who said something about something.”

    Says my loyal little stalker as he rummages around to cite someone who said something about something :)

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    Mute Barney Dooley
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 3:57 PM

    @Colin Moran:
    P.S He’s a macroeconomic illiterate much like yourself who he believes the issuer of the dollar can run out of dollars. That’s why he’s looking to Marx to explain how the capitalist economy operates. You should do the same instead of trotting around after me like an obedient hound :)

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    Mute Colin Moran
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 5:32 PM

    @Barney Dooley: So when you cite external references from the Internet it’s valid but when anyone else does it’s not?
    Very Trumpian of you there Conor.

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    Mute Colin Moran
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 5:34 PM

    @Barney Dooley: a ‘macroeconomic illiterate’?
    I can see why you quoted him to substantiate your point! HahahAAA!!!
    You’re a complete clown Conor and what you call stalking I call ‘making Wally and the AAA look like idiots’.
    It’s fun! And easy.

    3
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    Mute O'Reilly
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:23 AM

    Jobs. There will be outrage here…

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    Mute Science of beer
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:31 AM

    Brilliant. Now all we need to do is sort out the tax system so we can attract the best to the country.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:40 AM

    @Science of beer: and accommodation.

    31
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    Mute cortisola
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:34 PM

    @Deborah Behan: and transport

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    Mute Adrian
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:43 PM

    And that’s not noonan, or coveney, or ross, or harris, or kenny, or leo, or martin.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 9:59 AM

    While the job forecasts are welcome, there is still a shortage of affordable housing to rent around our cities. People will be more cautious this time about buying houses unless they are sure that employment is sustainable

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    Mute cortisola
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:38 PM

    @Chris Kirk: Housing and rents will only go worse with that according to my experience. Thou as prosperity cant stay too long we will face overall collapse in few years and everything will go back to normal.

    5
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    Mute Fred Jensen
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:48 AM

    If anything these forecasts are too pessimistic, the construction sector alone is going to expand at least 15% this year given the huge backlog of projects about to start.

    The media likes to make out that we are entirely dependent on world events, but the truth is we have a domestic economy with it’s own momentum which should carry us through the next few years, even if exports are flat.

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    Mute Paul Fahey
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 9:14 AM

    @Fred Jensen: and this construction growth, are they only building commercial property for domestic Irish companies? Are they only building residential properties for the Irish born population? The answer to both if course is no. As a nation we are almost entirely dependent on foreign investment, our politicians have built our economy around it and to suggest otherwise is utterly deluded.

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    Mute Robert Woodward
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:39 AM

    Recovery deniers will be along soon to call this a fake news story and to tell us that “nobody they know has got a job or pay increase”

    23
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    Mute YouHaveGotToBeJoking
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:35 AM

    I am waiting for the flood of multinationals to come over after BREXIT with their highly skilled workforce and add further damnation to the housing situation. Granted, a percentage of these companies will employee people from the Island although it is a gaurentee that many existing employees will follow – the already crippled housing situation with fall asunder.

    12
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    Mute Fred Jensen
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:00 AM

    Between 2002 and 2007 (the so-called Celtic tiger), our exports were largely falt or increased only marginally. All of that growth was domestic construction and consumer spending led.

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    Mute Paul Fahey
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:07 AM

    @Fred Jensen: and yet you are supporting and celebrating growth in construction in your comment above. Only an idiot would not learn the lessons of the past.

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    Mute Chris Kirk
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 10:20 AM

    @Fred Jensen: You are right, but look where the celtic tiger led us, Ireland became greedy and uncompetitive. Some so called builders and trades people charging ridiculous prices for shoddy workmanship for houses sold from a plan. I hate to think that people would be that foolish again and we could end up back to that era. But if fianna fail get back into government you never know what will follow. I wish that someone would prioritise the country’s public transport network.

    12
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    Mute Adrian
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:40 PM

    I read in the paper yesterday that we are going to lose kobs as irish companies move to Britain!

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    Mute Robert Woodward
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 12:49 PM

    @Adrian: And along comes captain miserable Adrian.

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    Mute Fiona Fitzgerald
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 5:17 PM

    Britain probably needs people who can spell.

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    Mute Marcus Tullius Cicero
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    Apr 3rd 2017, 8:34 PM

    Jobs… OK. Tax cuts….OK. Borrowing….not OK. In a nutshell. Debt still there….

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