The CEO of IDA Ireland has played down the prospect of multi-national firms leaving Ireland, in the wake of the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.
During the election campaign, Mr Trump indicated that he intended to cut the US corporation tax rate from 35% to 15%. At present the Irish corporation tax rate is 12.5%.
Speaking to RTÉ News, Martin Shanahan said Ireland should be neither alarmist or complacent following the US election.
He said that despite remarks by one of the President-elect's economic advisors, he does not expect there will be a flood of American companies returning to the US from countries such as Ireland.
He said there are many reasons why US companies invest here, including access to markets and talent and Ireland remains an attractive place to invest.
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Yesterday, the Director of the Economic and Social Research Institute also played down the prospect of multinational firms leaving Ireland in the wake of the election.
Professor Alan Barrett said foreign companies have been "locked in here" through investments, and were the US to reduce its corporation tax rate, it would be unlikely to trigger major movements of firms.
The Governor of the Central Bank, Philip Lane, has said that it was "way too early to tell" what kind of impact Mr Trump's presidency will have on the Irish economy.
He said that he and his staff, as well as his colleagues across the euro system, were in "monitoring mode" to see what was going to happen in the US.
