A former US Commerce Secretary told Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe that the Irish Government should offer to buy more liquified natural gas from America and increase its defence spending in its negotiations with the Trump administration.
Wilbur Ross, who served in Donald Trump's first Cabinet from 2017 to 2021, met Minister Donohoe earlier today.
Speaking in Dublin, Mr Ross said that Minister Donohoe had asked what could Ireland volunteer in discussions with the Trump administration.
Mr Ross said that he told Minister Donohoe that if Ireland bought liquified natural gas (LNG) from the US "it would augur very well with our government".
He added that Ireland had very low defence spending.
"I think increasing that somewhat would also augur very well because our president is very obsessed that European countries should pay a fair share relative to their economies," he said.
Mr Ross has been a major investor in Ireland. His company bought 35% of Bank of Ireland after the financial crash and he was a director of the bank until 2014.
He was speaking in UCD at an event co-hosted by Cardinal Capital, the company which had organised his investment in Bank of Ireland.
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Asked about the impact of tariffs on Ireland, he said: "It may be that pharmaceutical employment here won’t be the growth engine that it has been, but I don’t think people are going to run away from Ireland.
"Ireland has a young, well-educated, very effective workforce. You have very good telecommunications, wonderful location to be a European headquarters for a company.
"Your tax rate is still a little bit lower than ours, so that’s a help as well."
He said that Ireland was in a "unique situation" due its low unemployment in comparison to other European countries.
He added concerns about the damaging impact of tariffs was "a little bit overdone".
Mr Ross said that in the US, there were quite a few people who felt pharmaceutical and technology companies had abused the system by transferring intellectual property to Ireland because it was a low tax jurisdiction.
