{"id":350457,"date":"2026-03-17T08:38:43","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/350457\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T08:38:43","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T08:38:43","slug":"trumps-envoy-warned-ireland-was-losing-us-business-records-show-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/350457\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump\u2019s envoy warned Ireland was losing US business, records show \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s ambassador to Ireland warned the Government<\/a> last year that businesses had begun moving their future investments<\/a> out of Ireland.<\/p>\n

As Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> attended a day of events intended to promote US-Ireland business links in Washington on Monday, Department of Foreign Affairs<\/a> (DFA) files released under freedom-of-information laws show that during a meeting with T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> last July, US ambassador Edward S Walsh \u201creferred to contacts in business who are moving their investment pipeline out of Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The documents, drawn up by Irish officials, show that Walsh told Harris, then minister for foreign affairs, this included \u201cdata centres<\/a> due to future energy needs\u201d and that he \u201calso referred to planning-related challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n

In response, the T\u00e1naiste told Walsh that Ireland was developing a new liquefied natural gas<\/a> facility, and flagged reforms to planning laws.<\/p>\n

Harris agreed to give Walsh a note on Ireland\u2019s proposed approach to infrastructure \u2013 particularly water, power and housing<\/a> \u2013 before the ambassador returned to Washington the following month.<\/p>\n

The exchange is detailed in correspondence between the DFA and its counterparts in the Department of Housing, which released the emails to The Irish Times.<\/p>\n

Files that give insight into ambassadorial thinking are seldom made public.<\/p>\n

Housing officials were tasked with drawing up a \u201cnon-paper\u201d \u2013 an informal summary of policy thinking in a given area \u2013 for Walsh, who was \u201cexpected to meet with contacts in the private sector\u201d on his return to the US. <\/p>\n

DFA officials told the Department of Housing \u201cwe\u2019re trying to equip him with topline messaging about Irish investment plans\u201d \u2013 adding that similar \u201cnon-papers\u201d would be prepared on EU trade and tariffs and on the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Walsh attended a St Patrick\u2019s Day<\/a> function with the Taoiseach in Washington on Monday hosted by Amazon<\/a>, which has developed large data centres in Ireland. Officials said he had been \u201cvery engaged in promoting two-way trade and [was] positive on the opportunities and growth\u201d at St Patrick\u2019s Day events.<\/p>\n

While Amazon received planning permission for three data centres in north Dublin late last year, it has also reportedly decided against building some similar projects here, and scrapped plans to build a large industrial plant because it could not secure an electricity supply for the project.<\/p>\n

The US embassy in Dublin had no comment on Monday.<\/p>\n

Speaking to journalists in advance of his meeting with Trump on Tuesday, Martin declined to be drawn on his preparations or speculate about their discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLife is unpredictable. Politics is unpredictable and so I\u2019m enjoying what I\u2019m doing today,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m focused on the functions I have today, and then we take tomorrow when it comes. I\u2019m looking forward to it … I\u2019m looking forward to meeting the president. Looking forward to meeting the vice-president. And I\u2019m looking forward to lunch on the Hill … So that\u2019s the frame of mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, officials admit to anxiety in advance of the meeting, with the Irish side fearing a broadside from Trump about the EU to which the Taoiseach may feel obliged to respond, perhaps setting the meeting on an unpredictable trajectory.<\/p>\n

The meeting is overshadowed by the continuing war in the Gulf<\/a>, with Trump stepping up his requests for other countries to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open to shipping. On Monday, the Taoiseach said any military intervention was a matter for Nato, of which Ireland was not a member. <\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019re not a military power. We don\u2019t have that offensive military capacity in any shape or form. So obviously that\u2019s not something that\u2019s on our agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump\u2019s ambassador to Ireland warned the Government last year that businesses had begun moving their future investments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5691,969,1523,61,975,60,150432,1843,43,3026,70,115,90],"class_list":["post-350457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-data-centres","tag-donald-trump","tag-government","tag-ie","tag-investment","tag-ireland","tag-israel-iran-conflict","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-north-atlantic-treaty-organisation-nato","tag-simon-harris","tag-united-states","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}