One of the reasons Taoiseach Micheal Martin will visit the White House this year is to secure employment linked to medical technology companies clustered around Galway.
The Fianna Fáil leader has come under increasing pressure to reassess the annual gifting of shamrock to the US president in the White House, as deteriorating relations between Donald Trump’s administration and the European Union continue, amid global economic consequences of the US-Israeli attacks on Iran influencing cost of living increases in Ireland.
Farmers in Galway are also reporting panic buying of feriliser, as urea prices soar due to uncertainty at the Straits of Hormuz at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, through which 30 per cent of the world’s fertiliser is exported.
Senior government sources have confirmed to the Galway Advertiser that a major multinational – confirmed to be a high-tech American firm – is in advance talks with Irish officials about building a large manufacturing plant in County Galway, subject to infrastructure provision.
Speaking on his most recent visit to Galway last month, on the same week he received a formal invitation from Washington, Martin stressed US investment in the West.
“It is a very important economic relationship between the United States and Ireland. Just in this region alone, if you look at the med tech cluster, one of the most important [medical technology] clusters in Europe is in Galway, bringing incredible, high quality jobs,” he said.
“If you look at the Medtronics, Boston Scientifics and many more, lots of Irish companies supply into those companies, so it’s a huge ecosystem here.”
American companies provide more than 200,000 direct employment positions across Ireland, with up to 130,000 other jobs indirectly supported by them. CSO figures suggest almost 18,000 jobs across County Galway are directly linked to American employers.
“Our companies are creating about 200,000 jobs in America… and there are about 30 million people there of Irish descent,” the Taoiseach said in unreported remarks while visiting Ballinasloe in February. “Some people give out, and will oppose [visiting Washington] and so on, and complain, but I haven’t heard of any European Union state that has refused an invitation to the White House.”
Speaking to the Advertiser, Sinn Féin’s Mairead Farrell – currently the only non-government TD in Galway West – said the decision to attend the White House was up to the Taoiseach, and she conceded he has a difficult balancing act to perform in terms of Irish and regional interests, and the Irish public’s views on Iran and Gaza.
“It is a decision for him – what he thinks, and it’s not easy. He must also be conscious of how history will remember this moment… and it will be interesting to see what he says [to President Trump] when he is there,” she said.
Last week, Farrell condemned the record of Iran’s regime in the Dáil. “But the policies of any government does not grant another state the right to bomb its cities and murder its citizens,” she said, outlining how western interventions in Iraq, Syria and Libya have resulted in regional uncertainty, and “immense human suffering,” while outlining America’s and Britain’s “shameful history” of interference with Iranian politics since the 1950s.
Farrell also criticised Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael for their “instinctive deference when powerful states break the rules,” and criticised Martin for not condemning “the US and Israel’s flagrant breach of international law” in attacking Iran.
Last year the Taoiseach was in Washington the week before St Patrick’s Day, but this year diary notes suggest Martin will meet Trump on March 17.
