IDA BOSS Martin Shanahan's appearance on American TV business show Squawk Box has gone viral after one of the CNBC anchors interviewing him made a series of gaffes about Ireland.
The CEO of the Irish Development Authority, a semi-state body, was on the show speaking with the three Squawk Box co-anchors Becky Quick, Andrew Ross Sorkin and Joe Kernan.
The interview starts smoothly with Quick and Sorkin asking about foreign investment into Ireland, taxation and the state of the nation’s economy, but seven minutes into the interview it takes a strange turn.
First Kernan interjects to ask about golf, before getting confused about where Ireland is located, what currency the country uses and Scotland’s use of sterling, branding it all “too confusing”.
The misunderstanding begins when Kernan asserts that Ireland still uses pounds. Shanahan corrects the anchor and informs him that Ireland’s currency is the Euro.
“You have Euros in Ireland?” asks a surprised Kernan, “Why?”
Shanahan replies “Why wouldn't we have Euros in Ireland?”
“It’s part of the EU”, Becky Quick explains to her co-anchor, but Kernan continues on his tangent, leading to a very awkward exchange.
“Huh. I’d use the pound” Kernan says, before discussing a recent trip to Scotland where he used sterling.
“Scottish pounds”, says Shanahan. “But we use Euro”.
“What?” Kernan asks aghast. “Why would you do that?”
“Why wouldn’t we do that?” says Shanahan.
“They are part of the UK we are not”, Shanahan clarifies, referring to Scotland.
Shanahan goes on to describe Ireland and England as “very close but entirely separate”.
But Kernan insists “It is sort of the same island isn’t it?”
Again Quick tries to bring the interview back on track, but Kernan continues to interrupt stating “Northern Ireland should be the ones not using the pound”
“I’m not sure I follow your logic” says Shanhan, before diplomatically encouraging the anchor to visit Ireland.
Kernan concludes his rant by saying “You guys just gotta get it together”.
The clip of the interview has been viewed over 104,000 times since being posted on YouTube, with many Americans apologising in the comments section underneath the video for the lack of knowledge displayed by the CNBC interviewer.
