IDA responds to Trump's comments on US companies pulling out of Ireland
The IDA has said it has no reason to believe that US companies will pull out of Ireland following Donald Trump's latest comments.
The President called on American firms to stop manufacturing here and come back to the US.
He suggested that the reason why some Chief Executives resigned from his advisory council in the wake of Charlottesville was due to the fact they were embarrassed they make products abroad.
"If you look at some of those people you're talking about, they're outside of the country, they're having a lot of their products being made outside," said Trump.
"If you look at Merck as an example, I have to tell you, some of the folks that will leave, they're leaving out of embarrassment because they make their products outside.
"You have to bring it back to this country, you can't do it neccessarily in Ireland and all of these other places, you have to bring this work back to this country, that is what I want."
Intel and Merck are just two of 700 US companies which are based here.
Combined they employ over 100,000 people and account for 70% of our foreign direct investment.
Shane Nolan a Vice President of the IDA has said Trump's latest reaction is not surprising.
"We tend to get called out in certain snipets as we are a prominent heart of US globalisation," he said.
Mr Nolan has said the companies that choose to locate here do so for easy access to the European and global market, they have been doing so for 60 years and there is no reason to believe they will stop now.
The IDA says US businesses continue to be attracted to Ireland but that it's working on attracting more investment from Asia and other new markets.
