Donald Trump's tariffs threaten to decimate Ireland's pharmaceutical industry as the US President seeks to "force" companies to relocate to America. Villages in County Cork, where major pharmaceutical operations take place, could see thousands of jobs disappear if the White House successfully lures firms back over the Atlantic.

Ringaskiddy port on the Cork coast is surrounded by 'big pharma' plants that employ tens of thousands of local people and produce essential medical products for the treatment of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, Crohn’s, and Parkinson’s disease. The plants even produce Sildenafil, the active ingredient found in Viagra. Pharmaceuticals are such a big business in Ireland that last year, the UK imported £1.39million worth.

Big-name companies like Pfizer, BioMarin International, DePuy Johnson & Johnson, Thermo Fisher, and others are all based around the port in Ringaskiddy. But now President Trump has threatened to end the zero or low tariff policy on finished drugs in a move designed to encourage such companies back to the US.

Many of the firms the President is keen to lure back are based in China, however if he was to proceed with the axing of the tariff exemption it would hit Ireland too. In 2023, the industry was worth £50bn to the Irish economy.

John Twomey, an amateur local historian, told the Guardian: “If Pfizer and the others closed … the collateral damage would be huge.

“Half the place would be blown to bits, all the workers, the subcontractors, from the guys supplying the toilet rolls to the farms supplying meat for the canteens.”

According to the Industrial Development Agency, 21,500 people are employed in Ringaskiddy and the surrounding east Cork towns in pharmaceuticals and biomedicines. In addition, thousands of jobs are indirectly reliant on mass employment in pharmaceuticals.

Jack White, a local Fine Gael councillor, said: "People with ordinary backgrounds have been given extraordinary prospects.

"People are worried because we have had such a huge dependency on pharma for employment in this area for generations. People have pinned their lives and their financial planning on jobs not just in pharma but in secondary industries. There are construction and scaffolding industries that have a permanent presence on sites like Pfizer, because their sites are constantly expanding or tinkered with."