While the US president told world leaders gathered at Davos last week that “Europe treats us very, very unfairly” there is a heightened sense of nervousness in Ireland that this could translate to an attempt to repatriate jobs and taxes from the 950 US companies there.

The fears have been added to by the well-publicised views of the president’s nominee as commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, who said last year it was “a nonsense that Ireland of all places runs a trade surplus” at the expense of the US.