US president Donald Trump’s flagship tax legislation has made the United States “significantly more attractive” for investment, US multinationals have told business lobby group Ibec, which has said the Republic must work “an awful lot harder” to compete.Trump delivered what he called his “big, beautiful Bill” last year, which extended vast tax reductions, paid for in part by steep cuts to healthcare and social welfare programmes.Projections indicate the law could add up to $5 trillion to the US deficit over the next 10 years. But White House officials have contended the economic growth generated by tax cuts will offset the increased spending.Speaking to reporters as the business group published its pre-budget submission to Minister for Finance Simon Harris on Monday, Ibec executive director of lobbying and influence Fergal O’Brien said the new US laws have made it “significantly more attractive”.“The US has really upped its game in terms of attracting new investment,” he said. “We are regularly hearing from our members and others in the decision-making group of US multinationals that it is now quite attractive to make new investments in the US.“Ireland is going to have to work an awful lot harder if we want to win the next wave of investments. In terms of winning new capital investment and new greenfield projects, it’s going to be much more difficult for Ireland and we do have to up our game there.”Ibec chief economist and head of national policy Gerard Brady said the changes to the US tax code have been particularly generous on investment related to research and development (R&D), which is where the Republic has “been winning, and winning well”.Rents and evictions soar as house price inflation slows Listen | 39:34“We have heard that from lots of multinationals now,” he said. “They’re saying the Irish rate under the new global tax regime is 15 per cent headline and you can get a little bit less than that depending on the R&D tax credit.“But in the US, for foreign-derived income where you’re exporting or you’re R&D intensive, under the [new tax code] you can get a headline rate of 14 per cent, and effective rates as low as 12 per cent, so really competitive with Ireland on tax.“The R&D tax credit in this context is going to be really, really important over the next number of years as a tool to keep Ireland competitive for those kind of investments.”Brady said Ibec is “not seeing much come through” in terms of new capital expenditure here, with “very little” in terms of new green field investment because the State is “just not as competitive” against the US as it was, something he called “a big trend over the past 18 months”.Separately, O’Brien said recent job cuts at Meta could be attributed to a “readjustment” after a period of “overhiring” in and around the Covid pandemic, rather than a displacement caused by artificial intelligence (AI).“There’s going to be lots of disruption [from AI] but there are going to be loads of opportunities as well,” he said. “But right now, we don’t have any large cohorts of members coming to us saying they are planning significant downsizing as a result of AI.“Hiring may be less ambitious than it has been over the past number of years, but that’s no surprise. We’ve just gone through a spectacular period. We’ve grown jobs by 45 per cent over the past decade. That’s not going to be repeated in the next decade.”O’Brien said there was “an incredible amount of frustration” that the Government is “continuing to sit on its hands” in relation to a surplus in the National Training Fund, which was set up in 2000 to support those seeking training for employment and upskilling.“Employers are putting 1 per cent of payroll into what should be a ring-fenced fund for labour market upskilling and reskilling,” he said. “What’s happening is the surplus is continuing to grow. It is now north of €2 billion.“To us, it is incomprehensible at a time when we are seeing so much disruption in the labour market. Ireland has moderate levels of lifelong learning, but we’re a long way off the top of class.”