LAST UPDATE | 1 Nov 2021

US TREASURY SECRETARY Janet Yellen is in Dublin today for a series of engagements with political and business leaders expected to focus on the OECD global tax deal.

Yellen was appointed by US President Joe Biden to his Administration in January this year. 

She is to meet with Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe this morning for a bilateral meeting at Government Buildings. They are expected to hold a press conference following the meeting. 

Later today, Yellen and Donohoe will meet with US and Irish business leaders at an event hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland at the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin. 

The pair will also deliver remarks at an event in Dublin Castle hosted by the Institute of International and European Affairs and the Department of Finance. 

Donohoe has already met with Yellen in person twice this year, in June at the G7 meetings in London and in July where Yellen met with the Eurogroup Finance Ministers in Brussels.

Speaking to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Donohoe said he will not pressure the US to do more to tackle climate change.

Yellen’s visit to Ireland comes as world leaders are at the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow.

Donohoe praised the close relationship between Ireland and Joe Biden’s administration, but played down any suggestion he might ask the US to do more to reduce carbon emissions.

“I’ll be reviewing where we are in Ireland with regards to how we want to reduce our carbon emissions. And I think when we all need to do so much together, I think we should shy away really from making lectures or describing difficulties that other countries may have,” he said.

“President Biden and Secretary Yellen are very much aware of the obligation that the United States has to reduce its carbon emissions, as I am as a member of the Irish Government for Ireland.

“And I think we’ll be focusing on what we can do together and acknowledging the great difficulty that there are at times in executing what we want to do.”

Donohoe said he will not be among the Irish ministers attending Cop26.

“The Finance Bill for the Budget is beginning this week. That Finance Bill includes measures to increase carbon taxation.

“I believe these are the kinds of concrete and practical contributions we can make here in Ireland to how we do better from a carbon point of view, and the Government will be represented by a range of other members of Government during that time,” he told RTE radio.

“The breadth of Government ministers that are attending speaks to the importance that we place on what is happening in Glasgow. I need to bring in our budgetary legislation this week into the Dail, and given the fact that carbon taxation is a very important element of that I think my time is best spent doing that.”

With reporting by Press Association