The bleak mid-winter was an unusual time for Taoiseach Simon Harris to unveil plans for a mammoth campaign in the US to win over and influence the incoming administration of President Trump. But time, apparently, is of the essence as, warns An Taoiseach, President Trump will use his office "to fulfil his election promises, including promises that may affect Ireland, such as the lowering of business taxes stateside".

Left unsaid is that the President may also penalise American companies which are, bizarrely, headquartered in or have their Intellectual Property located in, the Irish Republic. His goal: to call time on American companies which are living it high on the hog courtesy of the Republic of Ireland's embarrassingly low corporate tax regime. 

President Trump's advisers, most notably former Trade Representative Ambassador Robert Emmet Lighthizer, believe Ireland's gain is America's loss. As the Bold Robert Emmet tells it: "The benefit to Ireland (of a low corporate tax rate) is substantial employment and revenue. For the United States, it means a loss of both."

As (to use Connolly's term) a Northman who has tried to get the attention of the Irish Government on issues of grave importance over the past 40 years, I am only too aware that nothing gets the attention of those in Government Buildings like a threat to the developed world's lowest corporate tax rates - a fiscal policy which underpins the success of the Republic of Ireland's economy. The bright side of this equation, according to the American-Irish Chamber of Commerce, is 970 American companies, many multi-nationals, provide over  200,000 (mostly very well-paid) jobs in the Irish Republic.

The downside is that reputable agencies providing a voice to the world's poor equate the Republic's 12.5/15 per cent rate for the world's largest companies such as Apple, Intel, Google and Pfizer as tax avoidance. "(We have) long argued that corporate tax avoidance is a major barrier to tackling poverty. We’ve previously estimated that harmful tax practices by companies and wealthy individuals rob poorer countries of more than $400bn per year – more than twice the amount given in official overseas aid," explains Conor O'Neill of Christian Aid Ireland.  

O'Neill adds, damningly: "Ireland’s oversized role in the international tax avoidance landscape is well-documented, recognised by the European Commission, human right experts, bodies within the US Congress, and academics. A recent working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that ‘more than $616 billion in profits were shifted to tax havens in 2015, close to 40% of multinational profits’, and identified Ireland as ‘the number one shifting destination, accounting for more than $100 billion alone.’"

One wonders how the Evangelicals bolstering the new Trump administration will get their bearings on this one — which is no doubt the reason why they need a new-found friend with a charming Irish brogue to put them right.

This 'diplomatic offensive' will be aimed at the Republican Party leaders soon to hold the tiller in the Senate, Congress and in the White House but its salespeople, Taoiseach Harris hopes, will be Irish Americans. 

The same Irish Americans, many Irish citizens with passports to prove it but who aren't deemed worthy of a vote in Irish Presidential elections, are to be mobilised to defend the alluring corporate taxation rates in the Republic of Ireland.

It's a dirty job but one for which Irish American organisations, Emerald Societies, immigrant centers, community networks, AOH divisions, cultural groups, business forums and sporting bodies are being volunteered.

From the end of January, the afore-mentioned can expect contact not just from the Irish chain of consulates and honorary consulates across the US but also from Irish state bodies like the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and An Bord Bia. The Fine Gael Taoiseach lumps Tourism Ireland in there as a "state body" but of course it answers to two governments on the island of Ireland and is not available to be contracted at will by either unilaterally to do anything in the U.S. other than its core job: put bums on airplane seats.

The Irish Echo reports on Taoiseach Harris' lettre d'armour to the Irish of America in our front page this week — which is just as well because the original op-ed is behind a paid firewall on The Irish Times website. Which is as strange a start to a marketing campaign targeting 40 million Irish America as one could imagine — unless of course the messaging is to be spun differently when it comes to getting Irish Americans to stand up for Irish tax policies which are not in their interest.

An interesting New Year lies ahead.

Bliain Úr Faoi Mhaise Daoibh. Happy New Year to all.