He was speaking after former UK prime minister Boris Johnson claimed in his new memoir that Mr Biden had privately told him that he’s “not really Irish”.
Mr Harris is set to travel to the US next week where he will meet the president at the White House.
“There are very many pressing and serious issues that of course I want to speak to the president of the United States with, including our diplomatic relations,” he told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.
US president Joe Biden speaks at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina, Co Mayo. Photo: Reuters
“I think one question I definitely don’t need clarity from is that Joe Biden considers himself Irish.
“I think Boris Johnson is a person who seems to be very good at selling books and I hope he is certainly much better at that than he was at being a politician.”
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has dismissed speculation at concern around the size of this week’s Budget package as “reminiscent of boom era decisions” as “political mischief”.
“Whoever is putting that forward is clearly doing so for reasons of political mischief,” he told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.
“Everybody knows that every minister has a job to do in government and when you’re the minister for finance and you’re the minister for public expenditure reform, of course it is your job to make sure that ministers who have very long wishlists of good things that they want to get done, that of course they operate within a certain financial context.
“Paschal Donohoe has delivered with Jack Chambers a Budget that has actually set aside billions of euro into future funds.
Today’s News in 90 seconds – 4th October 2024
“We did not do what would have happened in the Celtic Tiger era where there was this boom-and-bust approach to politics and to public spending.
“What we’ve actually done is managed to give people some of their own money back to help them in the here and now, between now and Christmas, whether they’re pensioners, parents, carers, we’ve managed to make significant investments in next year in good areas including school books being free up to the Leaving Cert, hot school meals being rolled out, but crucially, we’ve also managed to set billions aside into future funds to make sure that my children and their children never live through the austerity that I did growing up.
“It’s actually, I believe, on balance, a very responsible Budget.”
