Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 23 September 2025

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed)

2:00 am

Dr. Robert Kelly:

Dr. O'Brien also may wish to come in. Tariffs certainly do impact the bottom line in exports to the US but this is an export platform as much to the EU as to the US. They could easily increase their global footprint elsewhere. If we think about this purely as tariffs, our assessment, given the high level of some costs in the system, it is probably not a decision point for current investment here in terms of how many are at risk due to the current level of tariffs. Looking into the future and potentially attracting more investment is what is at play. While we can partially control international policy through our influence in the like of EU forums, the reality is we are a taker of a lot of what happens globally. What we can control is some of what the Deputy pointed out. If we want to remain relatively attractive, it is about having the infrastructure. Often, when we engage with multinational companies, they say cost is important but they talk about security of infrastructure, guaranteed power and water and being able to deliver these things at scale. Some of it is workforce, which brings us back to housing and whether we can scale up the workforce they need through immigration. There is a set of controllables. Tariffs are important but the others are what we as a nation can focus on to become as attractive as possible.