CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER Justin Trudeau will visit Ireland next week.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed to the Dáil this afternoon that Trudeau will arrive in Dublin with his family next Tuesday.
He is due to meet with the new Taoiseach and there is speculation he could also make a trip to Áras an Uachtaráin.
The visit comes just a month after Varadkar’s predecessor, Enda Kenny, met Trudeau in Canada.
The visit took place on 4 May, with all eyes on Trudeau’s socks.
A statement released from the Taoiseach stats that the visit is especially welcome given the “close and historical ties between the two countries, renewed in recent years with the large number of Irish people who have gone to live and work in Canada”.
It continued:
The Taoiseach is committed to ensuring that Ireland plays its part in global cooperation on some of the great international issues of our times, and looks forward to the opportunity to discuss these with PM Trudeau during the visit.
They share a commitment to the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and to open trade at global level.
The coming into force of the EU/Canada Comprehensive Trade and Economic Agreement opens new trading and investment opportunities for Irish and Canadian enterprises, which the Taoiseach looks forward to exploring with the prime minister.
The Taoiseach said he hopes the prime minister will have the chance to experience at “first hand Ireland’s vibrant and innovative enterprise environment and our rich sporting and cultural heritage”.
During the Fine Gael leadership, Varadkar was pitched as a politician that came from the same mould as Trudeau, as well as the new president of France, Emmanuel Macron.
However, he has faced up to criticism that he is not following in Trudeau’s footsteps when it comes to gender balance in his Cabinet.
When Trudeau took office, he was the first Canadian prime minister to put the equal number of men and women in his Cabinet in 2015.
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