Taoiseach Micheál Martin is expected to invite US president Donald Trump to visit Ireland when he visits the White House for St Patrick’s Day next month.
Government sources confirmed that an invitation for Mr Trump to visit would be extended as a normal courtesy, as it is to all US presidents.
A spokesman said that there is “always an open invitation to the president of the United States, a country with deep cultural and economic links”.
It is expected this invitation will be reiterated when the two men meet at the White House during the traditional St Patrick’s Day events.
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Mr Trump visited Ireland when he was previously president in 2019, meeting then taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Shannon Airport before travelling to his golf resort in Doonbeg, Co Clare, where he played a round of golf and stayed overnight.
Details of the Taoiseach’s programme in Washington DC, scheduled for the week after next, continue to be worked out by officials in both capitals.
However, it is expected he will have a bilateral meeting with Mr Trump in the Oval Office, before attending the Speakers’ lunch on Capitol Hill, an annual event hosted by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and which brings together the most senior Irish-American politicians in Washington.
An evening reception, at which the Taoiseach presents the president with a bowl of shamrock, normally takes place back at the White House later.
The Taoiseach also usually attends a breakfast that morning at the vice-president’s official residence at the Naval Observatory, while other events that take place during the week in Washington include the Ireland Funds’ dinner and a reception hosted by the Irish Ambassador to the US.
There is intense discussion around Government about the forthcoming Washington trip by Mr Martin and about the diplomatic challenges that may be faced by the Taoiseach in the US.
Former taoisigh Enda Kenny and Mr Varadkar, who both visited the US capital while Mr Trump was previously president, managed to strike a balance between swapping with Mr Trump the warm words about Irish-US relations demanded by the occasion, while also giving a message consistent with Irish values.
Mr Kenny memorably reminded Mr Trump – whose administration had taken a hard line against illegal immigration – that St Patrick was an immigrant, describing him as “the Patron Saint of Immigrants”.
But with the second Trump administration taking an apparently hostile approach to the European Union, which it has threatened to hit with tariffs, and with the US security guarantee to Europe now seemingly in question, the atmosphere is likely to be much more highly charged in Washington for this trip.
Last week, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and Northern First Minster Michelle O’Neill announced they would not travel to Washington for the St Patrick’s Day events in protest against the US stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict.
