TAOISEACH MICHÉAL MARTIN has ruled out Brexit-style government supports for businesses impacted by Trump’s tariffs, arguing that the government cannot take a “handout approach”.

Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, the Taoiseach said “this is not Brexit” when asked about the possibility of supports being introduced.

“I would caution in terms of just creating funds in themselves. More importantly, we have to take decisions now that would create the opportunity or the landscape for companies to grow and to develop strongly,” the Taoiseach said.

He added: “It has to be a strategic approach, not a handout approach”.

Responding to his comments, IBEC boss Danny McCoy said he was “surprised” by what the Taoiseach had to say. 

He argued to that there should be supports put in place to help the businesses worst impacted.

“There will be some businesses that will be disproportionately affected by 15% [tariffs]. These will be companies that have very low margins, and depend in the short term on the United States,” McCoy said.

He added: “There will be hard cases, there will be people who lose their jobs with 15% tariffs.”

The Taoiseach said the agreement between the EU and US avoided a “damaging trade war” but added: “Nobody is welcoming tariffs with open arms.”

He took the view that the agreement acts as a wider framework for how trade will operate, but said the finer details for each sector will have to be ironed out in the coming days and weeks. 

“There is much to be negotiated in the aftermath of this framework agreement, in terms of detailed almost, in some sectors, product-by-product negotiations,” the Taoiseach said. 

“It’s important to say that Europe never sought tariffs, or never sought to impose tariffs, and fundamentally, we are against tariffs: we believe in an open trading economy,” he added.

“In essence, we have avoided a trade conflict here which would have been ruinous, which would have been very damaging to our economy, and to jobs in particular.

“The challenge now for Europe is to work on its own inefficiencies, to reduce barriers within the single market, to press ahead more ambitiously and more proactively on trade diversification and trade deals with other countries that would facilitate that market diversification that is required.”

Budget

Asked what impact the tariffs will have on the forthcoming Budget, the Taoiseach said:

“It’s difficult at this early stage to calculate the impact of these tariffs in terms of government revenues, or indeed in terms of the prospects for 2026, so we would do further analysis of that.”

Last week, the government published its Summer Economic Statement, a document that sets out the spending and tax parameters ahead of the Budget. The document was based on a zero tariff scenario.

Following the agreement of the US trade deal yesterday, there have been calls from Opposition TDs for the government to publish an updated Summer Economic Statement which accounts for the 15% tariffs. 

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said this afternoon that the government would not do so. 

“The Department of Finance will publish updated macroeconomic and fiscal forecasts alongside Budget 2026, which will take into account the impact of the updated US-EU tariff arrangements,” he said.