Trump will lead 'to a very different landscape' for foreign direct investment, warns IDA chief

Ireland has already begun planning for any potential onshoring of US companies, Mr Lohan said, pointing out that the state agency has tried to diversify across geographies

Mon, 20 Jan, 2025 - 15:21

The global landscape for foreign direct investment (FDI) will change under Donald Trump as president, IDA chief Michael Lohan has said.

“If you take maybe a look back at the last 24 months, in particular from an FDI perspective, we’ve seen a very changing and different landscape. In the FDI world, we’ve seen protectionism,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

That is leading to a very different landscape in which FDI has been competing

Mr Trump’s presidency poses an outsized risk for Ireland. The country boasts one of Europe’s only surpluses thanks in part to soaring tax revenue from US firms with operations here, such as Apple and Pfizer.

However, that corporate tax intake — which hit a record €39bn last year — is not a guaranteed income stream. The receipts are volatile, and cannot be relied on into the future, the finance ministry has warned for several years now.

Criticism towards Ireland

Those concerns are only exacerbated by the incoming US administration. Howard Lutnick, Mr Trump’s pick to lead the US commerce department, has previously singled out Ireland for criticism saying it ran a surplus at the US’s expense.

Ireland has already begun planning for any potential onshoring of US companies, Mr Lohan said, pointing out that the state agency has tried to diversify across geographies and increase its research and development portfolio.

It is also seeing a boon from Britain, for example, as its nearest neighbour recently brought in a slew of tax changes for businesses.

“I do believe there’s more opportunity for Ireland within the UK market, and we’re continuously working towards that,” Mr Lohan said.