New Delhi: The India-EU free trade agreement is “only the starting point” for deeper cooperation between the two sides, especially with regard to strategic relationships and people-to-people ties, said Jack Chambers, Ireland’s minister for public expenditure, infrastructure, public services, reform and digitalisation, in an interview with ThePrint.
“I think the FTA is the starting point of deeper cooperation on people-to-people links, business, economic cooperation, and I suppose the opportunity for both the economic blocs to deepen that wider economic and trading relationship. And we’ve seen from other deals where this happens, that is a catalyst for so much more. So really we’re at the starting point for that,” Chambers said. “It strengthens diplomatic engagement as well on broader global issues, and the need for making a case for multilateralism and the role of the United Nations is obviously something we share from Ireland and Europe, and India as well.”
The Irish minister—in India for a three-city visit, including stopovers in the national capital, Hyderabad and Bengaluru—met with Jitin Prasada, India’s Minister for State for Electronics and IT Monday, and Jyortiraditya Scindia, Union Minister for Communications Tuesday.
Chambers noted that India presents a “big opportunity” for Irish companies to sell “their goods and services”. Dublin’s strength includes its strong technology sector, which has seen a presence of Indian firms, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
India’s merchandise imports from Ireland have grown significantly in the last three-four years, while exports have remained stagnant. India’s imports from Ireland grew from around $600 million in 2019-20 to $5.4 billion in the current 2025-26 financial year.
Dublin’s largest exports to India include electrical machinery and equipment, which have significantly grown to roughly $4.777 billion in the current year from around $300 million half a decade ago.
As part of the growing economic diversification, Dublin signed an intent to launch a Joint Economic Commission with New Delhi last year during External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s two-day visit to Ireland.
“There’s been a lot of work in the background, and I think it just requires a formal sign-off now. And that’s about to happen… is my understanding. Part of the visit for me is, I suppose, to really deepen the neutral trading ties and economic cooperation between our two countries,” Chambers told ThePrint.
“We have a lot of synergies and shared opportunities. Obviously, tech, pharma, financial services and the digitalisation agenda is something that’s a shared objective of both countries. We’ve got a lot of Indian companies who’ve invested into Ireland as a base for the European Union. And we have a lot of Irish companies that are now looking towards India and trying to build that cooperation,” he added.
Indian community in Ireland
Interacting with students at Lady Shri Ram College for women Monday, Chambers highlighted Ireland’s complicated role in Indian history—from aiding the British Empire, to being strong allies with the nascent freedom movement in the early 1900s.
Chambers’ pitch to the students was the growing Indian community in Ireland, which numbers around 100,000 today, or roughly two percent of the population of the European nation.
However, despite the growing Indian community in Ireland, a number of attacks, motivated allegedly by racism, were reported last year. Between July and August, at least 13 Indian-origin individuals were attacked in Ireland, including an IT professional, a six-year old child and a taxi driver.
Chambers told ThePrint that the Irish government has been focused on “ensuring safety” of Indians in the last year, with targeted action by police forces to respond to “fears” faced by the community there.
“I understand and acknowledge the fear and panic which happened last summer, both for the Indian community living in Ireland, but also the coverage that took place in the aftermath of it. There’s been a huge amount of engagement at government level, and by our police service to support the local Indian community to have specific dialogue, but also to ensure that we’ve had public safety since those incidents. And that’s continuing,” said Chambers. “Ireland is a diverse, welcoming, and inclusive place that has been built on our ability to attract the best talent internationally.”
The Irish minister added: “Ensuring safety is a basic tenet of how we want to run our country. So I acknowledge the difficulty that was there last year, and the shocking attack on a number of people. But we put a huge amount of work in, and our police forces put a huge amount of work into trying to respond to those fears, and build a sense of safety in terms of people’s day-to-day living in Ireland. That’s a real priority for us.”
Chambers represents Dublin West in the lower house of Ireland, the Dáil Éireann, which is he described as one of the “most diverse constituencies” in the country, with a large Indian community. “I understand every day the huge contribution that the Indian population has made to Ireland, and some of the companies that have come here and built enterprises in Ireland, but also the push at home to really diversify our global trade,” he said.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)