Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

President Trump's tariffs are an unjustified act of aggression that will damage the US and the global economy. A full trade war has the risk of unleashing a global recession and that is the scale of threat we possibly face. The stakes are high and now more than ever is a time for cool heads. Irish interests and the interests of ordinary workers and families need to be at the front and centre of every decision. It needs to be the prism through which we make all these decisions.

We cannot get away from the fact tariffs are taxes. They are either paid by the companies or by consumers and what Trump is selling to the American people is a fantasy when he says otherwise. Irish people are genuinely concerned about what this all means for them, as well as the tariff talks, the retaliatory measures from China, countermeasures from America, further countermeasures from China and whether this will be the playbook we see with regard to the United States, European Union and Ireland and how this will affect their lives.

Many people in this country are already being ground down by the relentless cost-of-living crisis and they simply cannot absorb higher prices from tariffs. Those who have not felt the benefit of the so-called "good times" know all too well they are likely the first to be hit in bad times. People are worried about their jobs, particularly those in certain sectors and those within the FDI sector. We must focus on what we can control and use our influence externally. We also need to look at what is within our hands, however, and what we can decide on. Tariffs cannot be an excuse to drop election promises. We need to strengthen our workforce by providing affordable childcare. We need to give people security by building the homes workers can afford. We need to invest in apprenticeships, education and research and we need a health system people can access when they need it. There is an overlap between what people need and what our economy needs. We need an ambitious investment strategy in public services and infrastructure that includes public transport, energy, water and roads and urgently addresses the backlog in planning.

I am sure there is not a Member in this House who has not been told by businesses - whether they are some of the largest in the country or smallest - that the issues pressing down on them are the issues of housing, infrastructure, energy, cost and insurance; all things that are within the grip of the Irish Government. We need to send out a strong signal to people in industry that we are going to take our economic competitiveness into our own hands to lead with no more losses or delays being an issue so we can finally get to grip with the crises facing this country.

We also need to ensure Irish interests are heard at EU level because we cannot outsource this to Europe. We must have a strong Irish position on what works for Ireland. President Trump is openly talking about prying open markets and breaking down barriers. He wants unfettered access to every market. The US main trade grievance with the EU is the trade deficit. President Trump blames the deficit in goods predominantly on non-tariff barriers but that really means our laws and standards, specifically our health, environmental and agricultural standards. We should not make any mistake about it: agriculture is very much in the crosshairs of the American Administration and but our agricultural standards cannot be dictated to us by any country, even one as powerful as the US. We must protect Irish farmers and Irish agriculture. Talking about tariffs while making concessions on laws and standards would be a mistake and would undermine our sovereignty and credibility.

I want to repeat several asks we have today. We need sectoral assessments done immediately - I asked this of the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, last week - and those assessments need to be shared. Through those assessments, we could look at how and if we need targeted supports to support enterprise, jobs and employees. The all-Ireland economy needs to be prioritised. The North-South Ministerial Council will have an important role to play and needs to be convened without delay, as Deputy McDonald said. A word of warning must also be issued. Europe is set to look at several countermeasures and will join Canada and China on that but it is also looking at a second set of countermeasures. If you are looking at implementing tariffs as a set of countermeasures to what President Trump has done, the scale and breadth of that will mean that the prices paid by Irish consumers will be pushed up in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. The scale and breadth of that will impact on Irish jobs and Irish public finances. That is not just what Sinn Féin is saying; the ESRI and Department of Finance analysis states this is the case. We need to be very cautious not to do what President Trump has done, which is a reckless agenda that will impact US consumers. We must not fall into step on the same thing. Those countermeasures would be a tax on Irish consumers and Irish people and European citizens would pay the price for it. The use of some of the tools relating to anti-coercion measures that are being trumpeted by other countries would also have a deep impact on jobs in Ireland and enterprise here.

It is time to have cool heads and not follow President Trump down the road of economic self-sabotage which would eventually have ordinary workers and families pay the price.

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