On Friday afternoon Taoiseach Micheál Martin joined The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast to talk with Hugh Linehan and Pat Leahy about a range of issues:
- On tariffs, the Taoiseach says he hopes a US decision on pharmaceuticals may be incorporated into overall trade negotiations, to Ireland’s advantage.
- He says that Ireland will resist any move by the EU to apply new taxes to US tech firms and that he supports the pharmaceutical industry’s call for more favourable EU regulations.
- With the Government not on course to meet its goal of 300,000 new homes built by 2030, Mr Martin insists that figure is still the target and says a more aggressive social housing program is needed, criticising Dublin City Council for not building social housing “to any appreciable degree”.
- On working with Michael Lowry and the Regional Independents, he insists he dealt with Mr Lowry only to enable the formation of a stable Government, accepting that it was “maybe to the neglect of other issues”.
- He also confirms that the Government would send Irish troops to Ukraine to be part of a peacekeeping force if there is a ceasefire and a peace deal that ends the war.
