Tánaiste Simon Harris has insisted his trade phone call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has put Taoiseach Micheál Martin on a "good, solid foundation" for his White House meeting with US President Donald Trump, despite an ongoing dispute over what was discussed.
In an official phone call on Tuesday, an official Government read-out of the conversation said a "wide range of issues" were discussed, including the "mutually beneficial nature of the Irish-US economic relationship".
However, the following day, a separate US State Department read-out of the same official phone call said Mr Rubio raised "the US priority to address the US-Ireland trade imbalance", a situation the Government here says was not raised at all.
The US version has raised concerns among some politicians and business groups due to a separate official US reference this week to the trade "imbalance" between the US and EU, with a belief from some that the issue may be raised during Mr Martin's White House meeting with President Trump on Wednesday.
However, speaking to RTÉ News at a Defence Forces event in Renmore, Co Galway this morning, Mr Harris rejected opposition criticism the phone call dispute has made this week's White House meeting more difficult.
"I had an excellent conversation with my counterpart, my colleague, Senator Rubio. We discussed a range of matters. I was very satisfied with that conversation.
"I think places a good, solid foundation for the Taoiseach's engagement in Washington next week," Mr Harris said.
Asked about the risk of potential 25% US tariffs being imposed on Ireland and the EU, a decision US President Trump is due to make on 1 April, the Tánaiste said Ireland's message remains that our relationship with the US is "two-way".
"I think we very clearly know the position of the US administration and their view in relation to trade and trade policy, and we clearly are now in a time of flux in relation to international trade policy.
"I think one of the messages all of us will be taking to the United States next week, the Taoiseach to the White House and all of us right across the US who travel in the next week or so is this that the trade relationship and the economic relationship is now very much a two-way relationship.
"Indeed, my own Department will be publishing figures to show the extent of that, that there are people in every single state of the United States of America, including many, many people who voted for President Donald Trump will get out of bed every morning now and go to work in companies that are Irish owned.
"The point that I know we'll all be eager to make is, yes, any government has a right to review its economic policies, to review its trade policies.
"But even in the context of that review, I think an understanding of the depth and the interconnectedness of that two-way trade and investment relationship is something we're very keen to get across in the coming days, weeks, and indeed, beyond that," Mr Harris said.
Responding to criticism from Sinn Féin and other parties that he was "naive" in his conversation with Mr Rubio, the Tánaiste said in his view opposition parties are being "utterly unhelpful" in a time of national need.
""I think what is naive and opportunistic in the extreme is Sinn Féin choosing to boycott the trade mission to the United States and to the White House next week.
"It's a stroke politics that is utterly unhelpful at a time when really, everybody should be putting their shoulder to the wheel and taking every opportunity to engage with the United States government and with the Trump administration," he added.
