Eric Trump, son of the US president, has said it is ‘insane’ and will ‘cost Ireland 100 million bucks’ if one man living 200 miles away is allowed to stop a new ballroom in Doonbeg from being built.

And he may have made a few new friends in rural Ireland yesterday too, as he weighed in on the so-called ‘turf wars’, telling RTÉ’s Drivetime it was ‘insane’ for Ireland to have banned the burning of commercially cut turf, saying he loved the smell of a turf fire when visiting Ireland as a child.

Mr Trump, who helped to rebuild Trump International Golf Links & Hotel in Co. Clare, said our planning laws were causing investors to turn their backs on Ireland.

‘Someone should intervene and say enough’s enough,’ he said of the ballroom objection, on the second day of the Irish Open. ‘I think the one criticism I have of this country, and really of Europe in general, is that it’s very hard to get anything done.

‘It turns off a lot of investment. It pains me to say that because I adore Europe. I absolutely adore Ireland. I can’t tell you how many people have got so frustrated with red tape here that they have just turned their back, and said, listen, I don’t want to deal with it any more.’

In March, serial objector Liam Madden of Convent Road, Longford, lodged separate appeals with An Coimisiún Pleanála against two planning permissions granted by Clare County Council in February for the ballroom and upgrades at the west Clare resort.

Described in documents as an environmental scientist, planning consultant and legal adviser, Mr Madden urged the appeals board to ‘please refuse this nonsense’.

Mr Trump countered: ‘Maybe we’re narcissists, gluttons for punishment, willing to fight, and we certainly have. We’ve had to the entire time. But building a ballroom for a beautiful hotel should not be controversial. When you look at the hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact, between the cost of the ballroom, which would be 20, 30, 40 million dollars easily to build, and jobs, for the largest employer on the west coast.

‘People’s livelihoods, being able to host the best weddings, being able to see young people getting married, being able to host charitable events, business functions. For the west coast of Ireland, that’s a beautiful thing, and you have one person?

‘I feel Doonbeg wants it 100%, the county wants it 100%, the employees want it, all the members want it, and you have one person who lives 200 miles away willing to put in objections. It’s insane. Nowhere else in the world would allow that kind of behaviour, because it really does hurt economic investment in an entire nation.

‘Someone should intervene and say enough is enough.’

Eric Trump said he could also foresee building a Trump Tower in Dublin.

‘I’d love to,’ he said. ‘At the right time, I think at some point in the future, we will certainly be in Dublin.

‘Ideally it has to be the highest but it certainly has to be the best.’