TAOISEACH Micheál Martin has defended his proposed trip to Washington D.C to meet Joe Biden, arguing that most other governments would jump at the chance to do so.
He said that while no official decision had been made on whether to proceed with it or not, the St Patrick's Day visit was more than just a trip to meet the President, but was also a way of consolidating Ireland's strong relationship with the US.
Speaking on The Neil Prendeville Show on Cork's Red FM, Martin hit back at claims that he'd adopted one rule for the public and another for himself in relation to international travel.
"I haven't been travelling at all, but look I happen to be Taoiseach of the country and anything I do in a travel context is for the country, not for me," he said.
"This isn't about next March. I'm determined that Ireland will forge a very good relationship with president Biden."
Martin went on to say that the social media campaigns protesting against the trip amid a pandemic had "developed out of nowhere," arguing that he hadn't indicated any intention to travel to the US when they began.
"We've made no decision on that, and when I was asked once on this, I said that both ... the US government and our government would engage in terms of how we would mark St Patrick's Day this March," he added.
"Obviously it's a very close relationship between the US and Ireland, it's a very important one - economically, socially and culturally.
"Over 114,000 jobs [are] directly employed by US companies in Ireland and Irish companies employ about 90,000 in America, so it's a very important relationship.
"Most governments would give their right arm to help protect those opportunities that we normally and ordinarily have on Patrick's Day.
"But Because of Covid-19, that creates a context, so there'll be engagement over the next number of weeks but no firm decision has been made one way or the other."
