Kenny denies Trump snubbed him over New York meeting

Taoiseach Enda Kenny rejected suggestions that he had been snubbed by US president-elect Donald Trump after efforts to set up a meeting between them during the Irish leader’s visit to New York proved fruitless.

Mr Kenny had raised the possibility of meeting Mr Trump when they spoke by phone the day the businessman won the US presidential election. Irish officials had explored whether a meeting could be arranged at Trump Tower, the president-elect’s offices in Manhattan, during his four-day US visit.

“This trip was arranged long before the outcome of the election. Obviously this is a business, trade and investment trip both to the west coast and here. There are no political meetings on this occasion,” Mr Kenny said at the Irish consulate in New York near Trump Tower on the the third day of his US trip.

The Taoiseach defended the value of American multinationals investing in Ireland in the face of dire warnings from Mr Trump at events on the president-elect’s “USA Thank You Tour” on Thursday that there would be “consequences” for US companies leaving the country to set up operations overseas.

Expanding

Mr Kenny stressed that US companies operating in Ireland were “very happy” with their investment and the productivity and record in the country with some businesses recently expanding their operations.

“We have made the point that American companies operating on a global basis have to be near the markets in which they operate,” he said.

Mr Trump’s plan to cut the US corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 15 per cent, threatening strong competition with the Irish 12.5 per cent rate, was “a matter for the American administration”, he said.

The incoming president is targeting firms moving overseas, telling supporters at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Thursday that he would tax companies “very heavily at the border if they want to leave”.

Mr Kenny shrugged off the threat.

“Clearly the American administration makes its own decision. We make ours from a European perspective. We want to work together – Ireland and the States, Europe and the States,” he said.

US multinationals employ about 140,000 people in Ireland, account for about three-quarters of inward investment into the country and contribute about €3 billion in taxes to the Irish exchequer.

‘Very strongly’

The Taoiseach said he had told US businesses on his trip that the State would compete “very strongly” for companies looking to relocate from the UK follow the vote to leave the European Union.

Earlier he told Bloomberg TV that the Government had received a “stream” of inquiries from financial services companies and banks considering a move out of Britain as a result of the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

Asked about Mr Trump’s declaration on Thursday that he planned to follow through on his sweeping campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration, Mr Kenny said that it was a matter of “considerable interest” to the Irish Government given the number of undocumented Irish in the US.

The Taoiseach said he told Mr Trump and vice president-elect Mike Pence during his phone calls with them in recent weeks that the illegal Irish in the US were “contributing to the American economy, to the American society, pay their social security and abide by the laws of the land”.

He noted that the priorities of the incoming administration were on building the wall along the border with Mexico and targeting illegal immigrants with criminal records.

On Mr Trump’s campaign pledge to end the J-1 student work programme, Mr Kenny said that he hoped that the visa scheme so popular with Irish third-level students would not end because it maintains a “very strong cultural, social and business line” between Ireland and the US.

“I wouldn’t want to see that go. I think the J-1 has been an incredible opportunity and a brilliant example of connecting different countries, different cultures,” he said.

“For young people it has always been an adventure, it has always been a measure of excitement, of freedom to come to a different country.”

Trade and investment

On his visit to Manhattan, Mr Kenny privately met Stephen Schwarzman, chief executive of investment giant Blackstone, and Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JP Morgan. The meetings were set up by Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland as part of the Taoiseach’s efforts to encourage trade with and investment into Ireland.

Mr Trump named both men on Friday to a new 16-person “Strategic and Policy Forum” that will advise the president-elect on his plan to bring back jobs from overseas.

Other members of the forum include Walt Disney chief executive Bob Iger, Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon, General Motors chief executive Mary Barra, Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney and former General Electric chairman and chief executive Jack Welch.