62. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the key messages she is advancing during her engagements in New York regarding the importance of maintaining stable transatlantic trade relationships and diversifying Ireland's export markets in the context of ongoing uncertainty in the global trading environment. [69101/26]

71. Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if she will outline efforts to advance Ireland’s trade priorities during engagements in New York. [68433/26]

91. Deputy Naoise Ó Cearúil asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the trade priorities she will seek to advance during her meetings with international partners in New York and in advance of hosting EU Trade Ministers in Dublin next month. [69102/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 62, 71 and 91 together.

Last week, I travelled to New York to attend the UN General Assembly High Level Week. While there, I also undertook a programme of trade and economic engagements.

These engagements were an opportunity to focus on Ireland’s trade and investment relationship with the United States at a time of significant change and uncertainty in the international trading environment. Maintaining strong, stable and predictable economic relationships matters enormously for an open economy like ours.

One of the key messages that I delivered during my visit was that Ireland and the United States have a significant and mutually beneficial economic relationship, which creates prosperity, jobs and opportunity for large numbers of people on both sides of the Atlantic.

The theme of Artificial Intelligence featured prominently at this year’s UN High Level Week. Addressing the General Assembly, the UN Secretary-General called for guardrails that build trust and make AI safe, transparent and accountable, with human dignity at the centre. In my engagements, I highlighted the International AI Summit on 14 October, which will be a flagship event of Ireland’s EU Presidency, and will consolidate Europe’s position as a global leader in Applied AI and showcase Ireland as a tech hub.

While in New York, I met with Irish companies investing in the United States, and American companies investing in Ireland. American investment has played a hugely important role in Ireland’s economic development. The U.S. is Ireland’s largest trade and investment partner. More than 900 U.S. companies directly employ 245,000 people in Ireland. I had good discussions with ServiceNow, the enterprise AI platform company, and BNY, the financial services platform company, both of which have made significant investments in Ireland in recent years, creating quality jobs and opportunity. Ireland continues to be a highly competitive location for leading U.S. and international companies.

At the same time, almost 800 Irish companies directly employ more than 200,000 people across the 50 U.S. states. Ireland is the sixth largest source of foreign direct investment in the United States, with a total value of $391 billion invested there. While in New York, I took the opportunity to meet with Granite, from West Cork, to celebrate their latest U.S. acquisition of brand and design agency Right Hat. Granite’s expansion in the United States is a strong example of the confidence, innovation and ambition we are seeing from Irish businesses. I hope to see more Irish companies growing internationally, investing in the United States and creating jobs on both sides of the Atlantic.

Ireland has always been of the view that cooperation, engagement and dialogue is the best way forward to address the challenges facing both the EU and U.S. Throughout my programme of trade-focused meetings, I strongly made the case for continued transatlantic trade and investment and for removing, rather than creating, unnecessary barriers to doing business. During our EU Presidency, I will be prioritising maintaining and stabilising transatlantic cooperation. I have a strong focus on the competitiveness and simplification agendas – these are core to Europe’s long term economic strength and equally serve to support the transatlantic trading relationship. I strongly support the implementation of the EU-U.S Joint Statement by both sides and I am prioritising taking this forward during our Presidency.

My visit to New York came just one month before I host EU Trade Ministers in Dublin, as part of Ireland’s ongoing EU Presidency. That meeting comes at an important moment for European and global trade. The EU-U.S. trading relationship is the most valuable in the world, with €4.6 billion in goods and services traded each day. The EU and U.S. are each other’s largest trading partners in goods, representing almost 30% of total global trade in goods and services and 43% of global GDP. I want to see our economic partnership protected and enhanced. The Trade Ministers’ meeting will focus on the transatlantic trading relationship and the need to diversify our export markets.

It is just over one year since Government published the Action Plan on Market Diversification as part of a range of measures introduced by Government to strengthen Ireland’s economic resilience. The Action Plan sets out over 100 measures to support enterprise and market access; strengthen Ireland’s international economic diplomacy and trade promotion capacity; increase visibility for Irish businesses; and address some domestic barriers to diversification of markets.  The first progress report on the Action Plan in March this year showed strong progress across the many actions, and I expect to see continued strong momentum in the second progress report, which will be published shortly.  The Action Plan retains a sharp focus on established priority markets, including the U.S.

My Department is working to help strengthen and diversify Ireland’s trade and economic relationships throughout the United States, and across the globe. In support of these efforts, my Department received an additional funding allocation of €2.5 million in Budget 2026. This has allowed me to increase Ireland’s diplomatic footprint across the U.S. by 14% and I continue to strengthen Ireland’s presence in other key locations around the world.