Ivana Bacik says Labour will take part in protests during Donald Trump’s Irish visit

Labour leader says activists are already planning protests, while party also proposes €100 monthly shopping supplement for families

Labour leader Ivana Bacik plans to take part in anti-Trump protests during the US president’s visit to Ireland next week.

The Labour Party has already been in contact with activist groups and other political parties about planning protests during the two-day visit to Ireland.

Donald Trump is due to arrive in Dublin on the morning of September 12 for a whistle-stop tour of the capital before travelling to his resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare, where the Irish Open is taking place.

It is expected that Mr Trump will be greeted on the runway by Tánaiste Simon Harris before travelling to the Phoenix Park for meetings with Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Farmleigh House and President Catherine Connolly at Áras an Uachtaráin.

Mr Trump is then expected to return to Dublin Airport before travelling to Shannon Airport, where he will travel to his Doonbeg golf resort and stay on Saturday night.

Asked about the visit, Ms Bacik said: "I don't see support for Donald Trump or for the policies and politics he represents here in Ireland at all. I think people were so distressed by Israel's war in Gaza, by Putin's brutal war in Ukraine, and I think people are rightly very, very resistant to and hostile to Trump's politics. I think we'll see that expressed by people in any way they can once Trump is here."

Ms Bacik said her party and others on the left planned to take part in anti-Trump action, saying: "The Labour Party has been clear, we don't want to see a red carpet rolled out for Donald Trump. He has been responsible for bringing about increasing authoritarianism across the globe, bringing about illegal wars, tearing up international agreements on climate change, tearing up respect for the rule of law internationally, and indeed at home in America domestically, we've seen a sort of creeping fascism under his rule.

"The Labour Party is already actively engaged in planning for protests," Ms Bacik said ahead of her party's think-in in Galway city.

"There's already that engagement among activists on the left, different parties. So there's already planning in place. Obviously, as I said, we're waiting to see what shape the visit will actually take, but there will be further engagement because it's already started."

Bacik expects Connolly to express views

She said President Connolly had made it clear during last year's election that she would meet with any foreign leader as part of her role.

However, Ms Bacik added that she expects the president will “robustly” express her views when she meets Mr Trump.

"She spoke very robustly against the normalisation of war back in March and I think she'll express those views, and I would hope she does in a private visit."

Meanwhile, the party is proposing a €100 monthly shopping supplement for working families as part of a cost-of-living package in the upcoming Budget.

Detailing the support, which would be delivered across three months to those in receipt of Child Benefit, Labour's finance spokesperson Ged Nash said: "The situation at the moment is so dire for working families, given that there was no indexation of PAYE last year, which has meant now that the value of wages have been eroded."

He warned that given the lag in rising oil prices, food costs are likely to jump further in the new year.

"If people thought that the situation with grocery prices over the last two to three years was difficult, they ain't seen nothing yet," said Mr Nash.