Varadkar claims Trump’s comments on Irish tax was fake news

DUBLIN, Ireland - After Donald Trump said on Monday that Ireland was planning to reduce its corporation tax rate to just 8 percent from the current 12.5 percent - Varadkar has blasted the U.S. President.

Trump, who has blasted ‘fake news’ from even before he was elected, is now facing accusations of spreading fake news himself.

Trump’s bizarre remark came earlier this week after he said he had heard that Ireland was planning on dropping its corporate tax rate.

In a speech at the White House on Monday, Trump said, “You look at other countries, what they’ve done, and we’re competing with other countries, when China is at 15 percent, when, I hear, that Ireland’s going to be reducing their corporate rates down to 8 percent from 12...We can’t be at 35 percent and think we’re going to remain competitive in terms of companies and in terms of jobs.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has now said comments made by Trump about Ireland's corporate tax rate were "fake news.”

Varadkar poured cold water on Trump’s suggestion in the Dáil on Wednesday afternoon.

He told the Dail, “I can confirm that President Trump's claim that we are proposing to reduce our corporation profit tax to 8pc is indeed fake news. There is no such plan to do so.”

Ireland's corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent, has proved of great interest to Trump who has committed to attracting American companies back to the U.S.

Previously, he has commented on Ireland's low tax rate in his first major tax reform where Ireland was named among a list of countries with a low corporate tax rate including France, Germany, Canada, Japan, Mexico and South Korea.

In his speech, Trump said the U.S. had "massive trade deficits" with these countries, but that his administration was going to "fix that.”

He added that cutting corporate tax is essential for the U.S. to regain its competitive edge.

The Irish government has meanwhile reaffirmed Ireland's commitment to retaining a 12.5 percent corporate tax rate as a "core part of our offering" in Budget 2018.