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BIG BUSINESSES SUCH as JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, BNY and Bank of Ireland have met with Tánaiste Simon Harris today as he rounds off his final day in the US.
The big message on Harris’ St Patrick’s Day trip has been around trade, with the Tánaiste stating that he wants to be honest with the public that things are likely to be “tumultuous” before an agreement, if any, is made between the EU and US on tariffs.
In New York today, back-to-back meetings were held with major industry players, with the Tánaiste telling The Journal that he hoped to gain “insights” from the companies that he can take back home.
Tomorrow, the Tánaiste will bring a memo to Cabinet updating his ministerial colleagues about what business and trade policy information he has gleaned from the US trip.
The message repeated, at nauseum at times this week, is that it is a two-way relationship that exists economically between the EU, Ireland and the United States.
There is hope that this message will sink in with big US business here, businesses that are very important players in the Irish economy when it comes to jobs.
Speaking ahead of his meetings with the big financiers, Harris said he wants to “get their insights to where they see the lay of the land”.
Harris nodded to the fact that under the Donald Trump administration, things can change rapidly, on a daily, and sometimes on an hourly basis.
Any insights he gets in New York will be brought back to the government’s new trade forum which meets on Friday. Harris will chair the group which is made up of departments, agencies and business groups.
He said the meeting will be a chance to “really take stock of where we’re at”.
“But I’ve got to be very honest with the Irish people. My view remains the same and remains consistent. I believe we are entering a turbulent period of time.
“As I keep on saying, and Europe keeps on saying, and all my counterparts keep on saying, every disagreement ends with agreement. There needs to be an intense engagement to find a way forward here, because trade is good for Ireland, good for Europe, and it’s good for the United States of America,” he said.
“As of today, my sense is that we’re likely to see the turbulence before the agreement. I think that would be regrettable. I think it’d be much better use of everybody’s time and energy to intensively engage,” he added.
The European Union, which has responsibilities and trade policy, stands ready to intensively engage with the US, he added.
In a bid to spread his message on trade, Harris also spoke to media interviews with Bloomberg and CNN on the issues.
He said talks should take place before the April deadline which has been mooted, stating that that there is time before then for talks and engagement to take place.
https://x.com/BloombergTV/status/1902032077333135390
However, The Journal understands that business groups are deeply unhappy with the narrative circulating that things are likely to get worse before they get better, stating that pressure is likely to be put on government at Friday’s meeting to push the EU into talks and to consider re-opening the US tariff list agreed some years ago.
But what does turbulent times mean for the everyday Joe? What about threats to jobs?
The chairman of the IDA Chairman Fergal O’Rourke told the Irish Independent this week that he doesn’t foresee any immediate job losses.
When asked if he is jittery about possible job losses in the trade-war fallout, Harris said American companies know that to get access to the European Union, which is a massive market, they need to have a base in Europe.
“And Ireland offers a very good home to so many companies, companies that have done very well and that have made a lot of profit and absolutely have created a lot of jobs. So we don’t ever take investment for granted. We continue to work with companies, engage with companies,” he said.
Harris said the government will “control” what’s within their control, by investing in Ireland’s infrastructure and competitiveness.
“I think Ireland approaches this period of turbulence from a position of relevant strength,” said the Tánaiste.
Aside from big business concerns and jobs, any imposition of trade tariffs will increase costs for the consumer on both sides of the Atlantic.
The government has ruled out a return to a further cost-of-living package, with Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers confirming in recent weeks that there will be no more energy credits bestowed on customers, despite warnings that energy costs are set to rise again this year.
Asked about whether a looming trade war might make the government reconsider such a plan, Harris said this government and the last government have a strong track record in terms of putting support packages in place. However, he added:
“We do have to be honest with people now that we do need to try and move to a more regular budgetary cycle. Inflation is falling, but that is not to say that we won’t be trying to assist people in the budget with the cost-of-living, but how we do it has be part of the regular budgetary cycle,” said Harris.
“We are going to get through this, our economy is in good stead. We have been setting billions [of Euros] into future funds and we used to get asked ‘why are doing that, why don’t you spend all the money now’. This is one of the reasons. You prepare a buffer for your economy from any shocks,” the Tánaiste said.
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….is this another incident they will “learn” from?
Accountability HAS to be an election issue.
No no. It’s all ok now. They said sorry. So leave them alone and let them get on with ignoring other kids in their care.
No such thing, Accountability is a dirty word.
As someone who works in the Hse I can tell first hand that complaints upon staff from other staff members is something no one wants to deal with, there are people with many complaints against them with many knowing and seeing first hand they are true yet after the big Hse investigation the people still remain in their post in the exact same roll, I actually had myself transferred to another place to get away from the lack of management and pussy footing around dealing with staff properly best move I ever made
If the HSE is ever to be reformed then the only way to do it is to appoint an independent professional who is assessed and signed off on by ALL parties. This professional is then given the task of reforming the management and running the HSE. They are given a set timeframe and targets. They are then allowed to cull the dead wastage that pervades the HSE on the administration side and use the savings to improve the healthcare side of things. They will have the advantage of not worrying about getting re-elected as their role is to reach their targets and if that means making unpopular decisions then so be it. If they are appointed by an all party committee then none of the usual blame games can erupt as all parties will have made the decision to appoint the person.
The HSE employs 100,000 people and I would bet that you could get rid of 10% of them tomorrow morning and nothing would be disrupted, that’s how useless their roles are.
@Brian Ward
You can blame the Labour party for the lack of radical reform in the Irish health service.
All of the health service unions are responsible for the predicament of the health service, not just the ones that represent administrators. The following article was written by GP Dr Brendan O’Shea.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/health/nurses-must-allow-trolleys-on-wards-34351707.html
“I believe the nurses are wrong in trying to frustrate it and there is a sense they are playing silly industrial relations games.
It should be part of any escalation procedures to alleviate the pressure when trolley traffic reaches a certain crisis.
Any attempts to obstruct it are akin to terrorists hiding themselves among unfortunate hostages.
Just like in bus disputes where passengers end up being kicked around, it is now the turn of the patient.
Doctors’ unions are also guilty of this when the occasion arises.”
HSE never apologise and never learn. The incompetence and mismanagement are a disgrace. The government is a disgrace. From personal experience in 2007 in regards to portlaoise.
The wasters at the hse strike again . I wonder do any of these people ly awake at night worrying about the way people are left on trolleys and treated like animals . I think not !!!!!
Senior management have had 30% salary increases since 2012, I’d say that’s all they think about, period.
I know many foster parents who are living saints. The social workers they were assigned were dreadful in general. I mean gobsmackingly awful to the level of being dangerous. That’s why the very few bad foster homes can exist.
How many more similar cases are out there? It truly is shameful. We do have very good people e.g. the social worker and the whistleblower, trying to protect and stand up for such vulnerable people. Let us not lose sight of that.
@Mary Scanlon
I couldn’t agree more. If HSE employees were aware that vulnerable people were at risk and failed to take appropriate action then I hope that they will be crucified.
The public disservice.
Who gets sacked ? Nobody.
Carry on as normal.
Its the irish way….we are too accepting of incompetence from our politicians to our civil servants….never any accountability
Dead right D H. Buck stops nowhere in the Land of Saints and Scholars.
Yet another shameful indictment of the so called ‘establishment in this country. This news predates the HSE so there are many Health Boards, Ministers for Health and others responsible for ignoring what was going. on. The first report was made in 1995 which predates the HSE by 10 years. They are all equally responsible but of course in this country very few have to take responsibility for their actions or are held accountable.
In any other jurisdiction’ heads would roll’ with resignations, removal from posts etc. Apologies are useless and worthless as can be seen by the same ‘mistakes’ being made over and over again. Time for those responsible to be made face the consequences.
In recent times we have had politician after politician tell us how much they care for those who suffer abuse. Yet again their mealy mouthed words are shown up to be hypocritical. Time for them too to walk the walk.
Justine McCarthy wrote about this case for this week’s edition of The Sunday Times.
According to her, the DPP decided not to press charges in relation to five garda files dealing with alleged negligence and abuse in the home and one of the foster parents allegedly committed sexual assault and rape with the use of instruments (the foster father, I assume) is deceased.
I commend the social worker who blew the whistle.
Sadly, some members of staff of the health boards didn’t care about children who were neglected and sexually abused by one or both of their parents, i.e. the Kilkenny and Roscommon incest and McColgan family cases.
In the Roscommon incest case, the members of health board staff who were involved in that case could have appealed against the injunction that the mother had obtained (the evidence of neglect was as clear as a summer’s day) but they didn’t bother.
In the Roscommon case, an ultra right wing Catholic group funded an expensive legal challenge and obrptiained an injunction. The local health Board did not have the legal budget to appeal.
It’s dangerous when extremely well funded religious extremists can use lawyers to frustrate necessary interventions in very serious rape and incest cases. I’m pleased to say that a book is being written about this dreadful scandal, exposing the details but not the identities. The book includes details of the financial funding. Keep the religious extremists out of the social servuces area. Ideology causes terrible problems.
@Fiona deFreyne
The health board could have allocated money to its legal budget to appeal on the grounds of what was then Article 42.5 of the Constitution, which permitted the removal of children from parents if the parents fail in their duty. Given that the health board was supposed to protect the vulnerable, taking legal action to protect the vulnerable should have been a priority.
The health board could have informed the Gardaí of the neglect. Then the Gardaí could have arrested the parents for child neglect and that would have provided grounds for taking the children into care. Child neglect is a criminal offence, you know.
Stop making excuses for health board members of staff who didn’t do their jobs properly.
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