President Donald Trump told the media earlier this week that Ireland is to reduce its corporation tax rate to 8%.

President Donald Trump told the media earlier this week that Ireland is to reduce its corporation tax rate to 8%.

TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has accused US President Donald Trump of “fake news” over his claim that Ireland is set to reduce its corporation tax rate.

In a speech in the White House’s Rose Garden earlier this week, Trump name-checked Ireland, stating:

“You look at other countries and what they’ve done, and we’re competing with other countries,” he said. “When China is at 15% and I hear that Ireland is going to be reducing their corporate rates down to 8% from 12%.”

The Department of Finance has strongly denied Trump’s claim.

Asked about Trump’s speech by Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett in the Dáil today, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed that Ireland would not be reducing its corporation tax rate.

“It is indeed fake news,” he said with a grin on his face.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar in the Dáil today. Source: Oireachtas TV

Varadkar said “there is no such plan” to reduce the rate, adding that it stands at 12.5% and it will remain so for “a very long time”.

Boyd Barrett said the statement by the US president is further prove that he is a “pathological liar” and “dangerous”.

Trump is campaigning for a drop in America’s down tax rate of 35% to 20% and has been arguing that the US must do so in order to remain commercially competitive.