Taoiseach Micheál Martin said he could not rule out the possibility of Ireland slipping into a recession as a result of the war in Ukraine.
Mr Martin said “there will be a price for this war” and said “I can never promise anybody about economic cycles.”
Speaking to reporters in Washington on Wednesday, Mr Martin said current economic forecasts are projecting “an element of growth,” but if our large markets in the EU and the US were to come under pressure as a result of the war, Irish companies would not sell as much to European and American consumers and industry.
He said: "I can never promise anybody about economic cycles.
“We're an open export economy, so we export to markets like the United States, like the European Union, that are big markets for us and if they come under pressure invariably our companies don't sell as much in terms of European consumers and industry and so on.
“But the jury is very much out on that. But there will be a price for this war."
Mr Martin said the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Christine Lagarde had given a presentation to EU leaders when they met in Versailles last week on the economic impact of the war on Europe.
He said: "We have a number of issues coming at us, inflation prior to the war was going high, it's going to be higher now.”
He said “no one can be certain about what will happen over the course of 2022 in respect of the economic situation.”
He added that projections are still showing that Ireland will grow but said this could” unfold in a number of different ways and we can't be certain about that at all."
The Taoiseach was speaking on the second day of his trip to the US and met with business groups including Kerrygold, which is the number two biutter in America.
He also met with some women leading the way at Irish companies invested in the US.
