Ireland is on the precipice of the biggest economic crisis facing this country since the banking crisis. The tariff war has the potential to destroy tens of thousands of Irish jobs, significantly cut back GDP and hammer the budgetary income of this State. You would not know it here but the tariff war is the biggest economic threat to the State. Ireland is one of the most exposed countries in the EU to the US tariff war. Ireland exports far more relatively than other European countries to the United States. Last year, we exported €72.6 billion of goods to the US.

What is happening in Europe is quite frightening. We have heard French President Macron call on the EU to take a tougher stance against the threatened US tariffs and the EU is hardening its position on tariffs. The approach of countries that are less exposed than Ireland seems to be having more of an influence on the Commission in relation to its new retaliation policy. The EU has settled on that retaliation policy. It has identified €72 billion of US goods. It is unclear at this stage if the Government has had any influence on that process. The Government lobbied the EU to avoid a tax on bourbon, to avoid a tariff on US aircraft and plane parts and to avoid retaliatory tariffs on medical devices and the agrifood sector, yet all those sectors are now targets for EU retaliatory tariffs. Bourbon, Boeing and butter are a focus of the EU in relation to this. This is a really big difficulty. The aircraft leasing sector in this State has a value of €300 billion, with 10,000 aircraft located here. Medical devices are worth €16 billion in exports. The whiskey sector is stopping production throughout the State. There has been a beeline of Ministers, and rightly so, to the EU to see if we can put pressure on it to take our interests into consideration in this, but the EU has not done so. Other than purebred horse racing there is precious little in this particular plan by the EU for Ireland.

This Government has been great at outsourcing decisions to the EU but we also need to focus pressure on the United States. There is no French-American vote, German-American vote or EU-American vote but there is an Irish-American vote. When the Taoiseach was in the Oval Office Trump basically admitted that was the case. We need to use that leverage, our influence with the United States, to build a bridge between the US and the EU in relation to our national interests.

Apart from the last sentence, I found that a fairly bizarre presentation. Deputy Tóibín is blaming the European Union. Europe did not impose any tariffs.

The Taoiseach has missed the point altogether.

Deputy, please let the Taoiseach respond.

I am not missing it at all. His entire three minutes was about how the European Union is doing this, the European Union is doing that, the French have-----

It is looking after its own interests.

-----have more influence than the Irish. It is absolute nonsense, if you do not mind me saying so. It is the US that has imposed the tariffs, not Europe. We do not want tariffs. Europe does not want tariffs. They are bad for the economy, people, patients, industry and businesses.

Hear, hear.

Hear, hear.

They are just bad news and they will damage the world economy if this continues. There is terrible uncertainty and volatility, and the result of all that is a pause on investment decisions, which is also a critical outcome so far of what has transpired over the last six months.

To be fair, I disagree further with the Deputy. The Irish position, until now, has been to avoid any escalatory response by Europe.

I have spoken to the President of the Commission. She is of the same view, as is the negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, to whom the Tánaiste has spoken, as have I. The whole strategy of the European Commission and the vast majority of the European Council has been to avoid an overreactive response, notwithstanding there are fairly severe tariffs on the motor industry, as a result of which a lot of EU countries are bleeding right now. It is easy for the Deputy to pontificate that we should do this, that and the other. If he was a worker in the car industry in Germany or Czechia, he would be feeling it. The UK was feeling it, which is why it made what is called a framework agreement with the US.

The latest iteration of this process is the announcement of a potential 30% tariff - not 10% but 30% - by 1 August. If that materialises, the EU, at that stage, will have no option but to respond. There is no point in getting worried about an individual component here or sector there. If there are tariffs of 30%, that will be ruinous or very destructive of our economy and of America's economy as well. We hope that does not come to pass. Europe wants to prioritise negotiation.

There is no evidence, by the way, in terms of what the Deputy said that France and others have got their way. They have not actually in the sense that some would have liked a more robust response already but Europe has played it calm and firm, been involved in negotiations and had good reason to believe there was a deal, an outline framework agreement in principle, on the table up to a couple of days before the weekend. That all changed. There is a new reality to 1 August. Europe hopes we can get into a negotiation process to resolve the matter.

Every day, the Taoiseach comes into this Chamber and answers a different question from the one he was actually asked. He is the king of deflection when it comes to these issues.

The reality is this issue is far too important. There are tens of thousands of Irish jobs at stake and the Government is at the back of the class when it comes to influencing the European Commission in terms of how it structures its retaliation to tariffs. Out of all the issues we discussed, we saw Simon Harris go to the European Commission last week and ask for a number of different things. All of them have been refused and, as a result, we are enormously exposed.

We are already exposed in regard how the Government has structured this economy. Ten international companies pay 50% of the corporation tax in this country. These international companies pay a third of all the taxes collected. Stephen Kinsella, who is an adviser to the Government, has said Ireland is the most exposed of any developed country in terms of the business model we are using.

What influence did the Taoiseach use to defend the whiskey sector? What influence did he use to defend the medtech sector?

The Deputy's time is up.

What influence did he use to defend the agricultural sector and the aircraft sector? He has failed in regard to those sectors.

The Deputy described me as the king of deflection. As a true republican, I never did royalty and do not propose to do so now.

In this matter, we have not failed in any respect. Europe has avoided retaliation, notwithstanding a fair degree of provocation by way of the imposition of tariffs. There has been an effective 10% tariff for the past number of months. Europe has avoided overreacting to this and has gone down the route of a negotiated settlement and solution with the United States Government.

The US has issues, which we acknowledge. They can be resolved via renegotiation. That is what we want to do. I do not believe in tariffs.

What are you doing? That is my question.

We acknowledge fully the exposure of this country to damage from any tariff imposition because we are a small, open economy. I am glad the Deputy has embraced that. There were times when he did not.

We have no issue with being a bridge with the US.

What have you done to achieve that? Nothing.

Taking the pharmaceutical sector, for example, Ireland is not isolated in that.

Thank you, Taoiseach. That concludes Leaders' Questions.

Up to ten EU countries have joined together in respect of the pharmaceutical sector.

The Taoiseach took ten minutes to say nothing.