Jane Matthews Reports from Texas

AN INTERVIEW AT the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin last night saw the Taoiseach squirm when asked what his chicken fillet roll order is, but he kept his cool when tricky questions about US-Irish trade were put to him.

His approach to the interview gave us the first real sense of how he intends to handle things if he is put in a difficult spot while visiting Donald Trump in the Oval Office tomorrow.

Earlier in the day, Martin batted away questions from the press about his forthcoming meeting with the US President.

He told reporters that he was taking the trip on a day-by-day basis, but in last night’s interview he showed us exactly how he plans to respond if asked about Ireland’s economic relationship with the US.

While at the White House tomorrow, the Taoiseach will meet privately with Trump, but ahead of this, the pair will sit and take questions from both Irish and US media in the Oval Office. 

This part of the day is viewed by the Taoiseach’s team as the most risky, with no knowing just what unwanted questions might be thrown at either leader. 

The soundings from the Taoiseach’s team have been that he plans to keep the public element of the meeting focused on all of the positives of the Ireland-US relationship, but last night’s interview showed that even if this isn’t possible, he is well prepared when it comes to trade. 

A significant talking point in the last week has been the “trade imbalance” that exists between Ireland and the US, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio even claiming to have discussed it during a phone call with Tánaiste Simon Harris last week. 

Last year, Ireland exported approximately €50bn more goods to the US than it imported – something Trump and his team are not happy about. 

When asked about this last night during a sitdown interview at Austin’s SXSW, the Taoiseach gave an insight into how he is going to diplomatically push back against any narrative that the trade relationship between Ireland and the US is unfair. 

“This is a bit more complex than gets presented by figures,” the Taoiseach said. 

He noted that Ireland is the sixth largest investor into the US economy and made the argument that the “extraordinary purchasing” of Ryanair and AirCap does not get captured in the figures collected by the US Department of Commerce. 

“The amount of aircraft they have bought from Boeing is phenomenal,” the Taoiseach said, adding that when put together, Ryanair and AirCap are the biggest purchasers of Boeing aircraft in the world. 

He also stressed the interconnectedness between the US and Ireland and the “win-win” that has resulted from US companies setting up base in Ireland.

Hold the nerve

The Taoiseach also advised companies operating in Ireland to “hold the nerve” in the face of threatened US tariffs.

“Our view as a small open trading economy, tariffs are not good for the economy. And we believe, as a small open trading economy, that the era of free trade, probably led to the greatest era of rising prosperity in the world. And so we shouldn’t forget that,” the Taoiseach said.