Dillon willing to debate Lawless after Mayo TD accused of ‘political cowardice’

Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Alan Dillon TD, has said he is willing to debate fellow Mayo TD Paul Lawless after he accused the former Mayo footballer of ‘lazy spin and political cowardice’. 

The Fine Gael told The Mayo News he would be willing to debate Deputy Lawless on the issue of foreign direct investment (FDI), a topic which has sparked a war of words between the two TDs. 

The spat began after Deputy Lawless’s party, Aontú, described the corporate tax contributions of global companies based in Ireland as ‘bargain basement’ and the employment they provide as ‘transitional’.

Concerns have been expressed about a potential drop-off in foreign direct investment after the American government announced new tariffs on goods from the EU - which reversed within hours of being implemented. 

In 2023, according to Aontú, 27 percent of Ireland’s net tax receipts were collected from just ten companies. 

Minister Dillon said he was ‘deeply disgusted’ by what he called ‘Aontú’s continued targeting of our multinational sector’, citing the employment created in Mayo by multinational corporations like AbbVie (formerly known as Allergan) and Vantive (formerly known as Baxter). 

Deputy Lawless issues a scathing response, describing Minister Dillon as “a TD who consistently dodges local debates - on Midwest Radio, Castlebar Radio, or anywhere else - and then turns around in the Dáil to throw out a lazy, ill-thought criticism with no evidence, no engagement, and clearly no understanding of my position.” 

“We’ve publicly supported FDI on the record - in Dáil debates, in meetings with business leaders, and at forums like the one in the MacWilliam Park Hotel with Mayo’s Chambers of Commerce. If Minister Dillon had bothered to show up to any of these, he would know my position, and he wouldn’t have to make things up.”

The former county councillor accused Minister Dillon of ‘drive-by politics’, ‘political cowardice’ and choosing to ‘to spin yarns in the Dáil chamber before scurrying off like a man allergic to accountability’. 

Speaking to The Mayo News this afternoon (Friday), Minister Dillon said he had never refused to debate Deputy Lawless and would be willing to do so in future. 

The Fine Gael TD also doubled down on his defence of Ireland’s corporation tax policy, citing the number of jobs supported by multinational companies in Mayo. He also said that continued support was needed for Ireland’s indigenous businesses, saying that many of them had been supported indirectly through FDI. 

“If FDI wasn’t here, we would have a bigger challenge to try and keep our young people here and our talented workforce in this country. It certainly has been a really important economic driver for this country,” said Deputy Dillon, who is a former employee of AbbVie.

“If you look at the number of jobs that are supported through FDI and that have set up not just their global headquarters here in Ireland, but also the fact that we are the largest English-speaking country in the EU and we have unique access to the single market, the European block of over 450 million people. I don’t understand the argument of being overreliant on it.”

Minister Dillon said that Ireland should continue to work with the EU Commission regarding ‘an appropriate response’ to the US tariff threats. 

“But it’s typical opposition outrage that they would target employees and companies who provide much more added value to the region than what Aontú feel they represent.