Economist Dan O’Brien was disinvited from addressing the Oireachtas committee on the Occupied Territories Bill. This is what he would have told lawmakers had he been allowed to speak.
With Ireland’s prosperity so tightly linked to US corporations and tax frameworks, looming changes in American fiscal policy pose a deeper, more immediate economic risk than global geopolitical tensions.
What economists call pro-cyclical fiscal policy is now well and truly entrenched, with government fuelling growth when it is not needed and deepening austerity when crises hit.
Even under Trump, US multinationals show little sign of retreating from global markets — thanks to incentives, political clout, and economic reality.
Today, an EU-UK summit will seek to ‘reset’ Britain’s relationship with the bloc that has been in flux since the Brexit referendum almost a decade ago. Pervasive gloom hangs over our neighbouring island. It has its problems, but the pessimism is overdone.
Housing completions have been flatlining for three years. At the same time, Ireland has experienced one of the biggest population increases in the world. The Government's approach to housing is not working.
The Trump administration not only wants to radically reduce economic ties with China, it is pressuring others, including the EU, to follow suit. This should happen on Europe's terms.
The next move is the EU's after new US tariffs were announced overnight. The balance between proportionate and escalatory retaliation is a fine one when dealing with any adversary. It is finer still when dealing with Donald Trump.
As the US looks set to bring in swinging tariffs on the EU, the current strength of the European economy gives reason to hope that it can withstand the transatlantic trade conflagration to come.
Ireland will become utterly isolated should it choose to opt out of European defence integration as the Donald Trump-led America continues to align closer with Russia over its traditional Western allies.
© 2025 Currency Media Limited
