We dodged a bullet this week & Ursula must have been bricking it, now here's what we need to do for Trump's last 3 years

The Irish Sun

6 days ago

6
WE dodged a bullet this week.
Advertisement
Taoiseach
6
Trump and Von Der Leyen met in Scotland to agree a 15 per cent tariff deal
Credit: Reuters
Sitting opposite him was
The
Before they headed off to knock their heads together in private, Von Der Leyen said of Trump, 'He's tough, but fair,' while Trump said of himself: 'I'm a tough negotiator and dealmaker.'
Advertisement
Poor old Ursula. She must've been bricking it.
Trump put the chances of a deal at '50-50', adding 'I'm not in a good mood.'
Which must've made Ursula doubly petrified. Back in
But after little more than an hour, the pair emerged and announced they'd struck a deal.
It wouldn't be as good as the 10 per cent deal the
Advertisement
We'd be hit with across-the-board tariffs of 15 per cent, HALF of what Trump had vowed to impose today had a deal not been achieved.
Trump triumphed: 'We have reached a deal. It's a good deal for everybody.
"It's going to bring us closer together.'
Von der Leyen hailed it too, as a 'huge deal', won after 'tough negotiations'.
Micheal and Simon could pinch their jocks free from their a**e cheeks again. Phew.
Advertisement
The taoiseach said: 'In essence, we have avoided a trade conflict here which would have been ruinous, which would have been very damaging to our economy, and to jobs in particular.'
NOT A POT TO PISS IN
He was spot on. Had a deal not been thrashed out, Ireland, more than any other EU nation, would have been thoroughly banjaxed.
Why? Well, our economy has been ridiculously over-reliant on revenue from US multinationals for decades.
Before the IDA began the process of attracting the big US corporate giants to Ireland with the promise of low
We hadn't a pot to piss in as a nation. In 1984, just four per cent of Ireland's tax revenue came from foreign multinationals.
Advertisement
The economy was a basket case.
But throughout the 1980s, 1990s and early noughties, Ireland's economy boomed thanks to huge multinational tax revenues.
WORRIED SICK
By 2024, almost a third of all tax revenue (29 per cent) came from foreign multinationals.
Some 75 per cent of them
Without the Yanks and their tax dollars, we'd soon be back in the dark days of the 1980s.
Advertisement
No wonder Micheal and Simon and
Think of the many tens of thousands of jobs that would have disappeared overnight.
It would have meant economic armageddon.
GOOD NEWS FOR IRISH
Now, 15 per cent tariffs will hurt Ireland's coffers. But it's not as ruinous as might have been expected.
The nitty gritty of this week's US-EU tariff deal still has to be worked out.
Advertisement
The
While, pharma is not explicitly mentioned in the deal, Ursula Von Der Leyen said clearly that the 15 per cent rate WILL apply to the export of drugs to the US.
Which is great news for us. It will save many jobs here. And Irish government officials deserve a pat on the back for ensuring a deal on pharma.
Without it, we'd have been goosed.
PIPE DREAM
Remember, as many as 90 pharmaceutical companies operate in Ireland, with around 50,000 people employed by US pharma firms across the country.
Advertisement
To give you an idea of just how much Ireland relies on pharma taxes, last year they contributed €10 billion to the exchequer — about 10 per cent of all the tax Ireland raked in.
We exported €78 billion worth of goods to the US last year. Pharma made up €58 billion of that total.
All of which had riled Trump, who has been adamant since assuming power that he wants US pharma companies to manufacture back in the US.
It's a pipe dream however, like his entire Make America Great Again fantasy.
US multinationals are here not just because of our low corporate tax rates.
Advertisement
HEEL OF THE HUNT
They're here because of our educated workforce, because we work hard and are reliable, because of Ireland's location on the edge of
Moving back to the US would be complex, costly and time-consuming.
In the heel of the hunt, just not worth it.
And anyway, Trump will be gone from office in three years, by which time sanity will hopefully have prevailed in US politics and someone who doesn't want to destroy world trade will be in the Oval office.
We can only hope and pray for that day.
Advertisement
Until then, we just keep the head down, roll with the 15 per cent tariffs, and hope a Trump bullet — and he will fire more, for sure — never hits home.
RADICAL PRIEST
INFAMOUS
Ryan grew up on a farm in
6
Father Patrick Ryan gave money to the IRA and earned the nickname 'The Padre'
Credit: Photocall Ireland
He entered the Pallatine order aged 14, famously saying later in life that nothing confirmed the social status of a
Advertisement
He was posted as a young priest, aged 24, to East
In 1969 he was posted to a parish in East
He managed to get out of it by convincing his superiors that he needed to go home to care for his sick mother.
Back home, as a disaffected priest he'd collect for the poor, but some of the donations he siphoned away for the IRA.
His superiors noticed and he confessed to 'giving it to another organisation' without naming the Provos.
Advertisement
He became invaluable to the IRA, earning the moniker 'the Padre'.
The British press were less romantic, calling him The Devil's Disciple and The Terror Priest.
He would go on to become one of the IRA's biggest fundraisers.
He personally helped bring money and guns from Gaddafi's Libya to the IRA in the 1980s.
He also honed skills he learned in Africa to build detonators for IRA bombs, one of which was used in the Brighton bombing that almost killed
Advertisement
His devices were also used in the Hyde Park bombing in July 1982 and in the August 1979 Warrenpoint bombing that killed 18 British soldiers.
He told his biographer, Jennifer O'Leary: 'The only regret I have was that I wasn't more effective, that the bombs made with the components I supplied didn't kill more.'
Her book The Padre: The True Story of the Irish Priest Who Armed the IRA With Gaddafi's Money was published in 2023. It's a fine read.
He was arrested in Belgium in 1988 in connection with the murders of three off-duty British soldiers in the Netherlands.
Margaret Thatcher requested his extradition. Ryan responded by going on hunger strike and was repatriated to Ireland.
Advertisement
Thatcher demanded Charles Haughey, then taoiseach, hand him over, telling him, 'He's a really bad egg.' Haughey refused.
He broke off ties with the IRA shortly afterwards, saying he had been compromised by British agents. He died in Dublin on June 15.
LEGEND LOST
THEY gathered in their many thousands this week to say goodbye to the king of heavy metal,
6
Icon Ozzy Osbourne passed away suddenly on July 22
Credit: Getty Images - Getty
Advertisement
6
Thousands turned out for the Black Sabbath singer's funeral
Credit: PA
Outside Ozzy's boyhood home, which sits in the shadow of Villa Park stadium, fans and wellwishers laid wreaths and ballons plus drawings, posters and paintings to honour the Prince of Darkness.
Despite his notoriety and his wealth, Ozzy, left, remained a ­humble man right up until his death.
He preferred to take people down a peg or two and laugh at the world.
He was a salt-of-the-earth Brummie, that's why. Farewell buddy.
Advertisement
SUBHUMANS CAGED
I USED to cover the courts. Many moons ago now, but they were an important hunting ground for any reporter wanting to get to grips with reality.
Drunks, domestic abusers,
Gougers these days are far more violent; to wit, the five subhumans caged for 60 years this week for the barbaric three-hour
Back in my day there were no people like that.
REGULATION NEEDED
THE online ghouls were at it within minutes of a cop being stabbed on Dublin's Capel street on Tuesday evening.
Far-right accounts that flourish on Elon Musk's sewerpit,
6
Elon Musk's X platform allows people to spread lies without intervention
Credit: Reuters
The authorities call it 'misinformation' and 'disinformation'.
Instead, they should just brand it all for what it is, plain and simpl.
Advertisement
LIES.
If the same crap that appears on X were printed in a newspaper, it would be rightly sued and forced to pay out a substantial sum in reparations.
But X claims it's not a publisher – it bloody well is – merely a platform and has no obligation to fact check anything that is put up.
Not only is that argument balderdash (X is a publisher, just like a newspaper or a broadcaster and should be treated as such) it is morally repulsive.
But just one look at
Advertisement
The state is scared to get tough with the tech giants, but if free speech and truth is to mean anything, X and Meta and the rest of them need to be regulated just as newspapers and broadcasters are.
CASH GRAB
ONLY in Ireland. A few years back the HSE paid a medical supplies company €720,000 TWICE for the same invoice.
The right arm not knowing what the left arm is at is a core feature of how the state operates.
Has been and will forever be thus. Well, new HSE boss, Bernard Gloster, to his credit, is shaking things up. Keep at it.
The HSE is trying to recoup the €750k it overpaid. Good luck with that seeing as the company, PMD Device Solutions is in liquidation.
Only in Ireland.