Bono has the answer Ð we should all go Dutch

Date Published: {J}

How comforting it was in this time of crisis to bear witness to an apparition from our very own rock god – otherwise known as Bono – at the top table for our recent Global Irish Economic Forum, dropping pearls of his infinite wisdom onto the great unwashed.

The great man said he would gladly go out and promote the country on specific missions – but reminded delegates that they had to do more than just play the ’Irish card’ to succeed.

“I’m torn on the diaspora thing because it is really significant but in the end things have to be great not just Irish. The tunes have to be great to get on the radio,” said the U2 singer, who entertained delegates by impersonating Clinton while they waited for the former President.

There appears to be no end to the man’s talent and at least he was honest enough to admit his discomfort at playing ‘the Irish card’ – probably on the basis that he pays his own taxes in Holland.

That said, he’s not a man to let a mere detail like that get in the way of his efforts to tell the rest of us what to do – it’s hard for a prophet to make a profit in his own land.

The U2 singer told Forum delegates that he was willing to work for the country in whatever role was asked of him – once, presumably, it wasn’t the same role as the rest of us which is to pay our tax, take our wage cuts or redundancies and swallow bitter pills in the belief it’s for the ‘greater good’.

Bono said the most important thing to take from the forum was that it is "within us to make this country ours again so we’re not beholden to these financial institutions." Which indeed he’s not, given that his financial institutions are, quite literally, a different country.

Of course if you rounded up the rest of the non-resident Irish who attended the Global Forum and asked them to live here and pay tax here like the rest of us, you’d probably have raised enough to satisfy the troika and have enough left over to send the entire country to the European Championships if Ireland manage to make it to Poland.

But the old teaching maxim – ‘do as I say, not as I do’ – also holds for our wealthiest ex-pats. And to be honest, if the rest of us had a way of having our salaries paid into a Dutch bank, we’d probably avail of the facility as well.

And in fairness to some of those who pay their tax in other countries – albeit considerably less of it than they’d pay if they stayed here – they do contribute to worthy causes, from Limerick hurling to Trappatoni’s wages.

But Bono is a different kettle of fish, because he proclaims his Irishness like he was in the GPO in 1916 and yet he – and his band-mates – steer their dosh through the Dutch books.

U2 were happy to avail of our tax breaks for artists here until the goalposts were moved in 2006 and a cap was placed on these breaks.

At the time, politicians and the public branded U2’s move a cynical ploy, leading to accusations that, while the band were urging the Government to give more money to relieve poverty, they were denying it the funds to do so.

U2’s manager, Paul McGuinness – another happy to help out at our Dublin Castle think-in – defended that, claiming “U2 is a global business and pays taxes globally… at least 95 per cent of U2’s business takes place outside of Ireland and as a result the band pays many different kinds of taxes all over the world.”

Bono himself has been strangely reluctant to explain their tax strategy, but the Edge admitted: “Of course we want to be tax-efficient – who doesn’t?”

U2 were the highest-earning musicians in the world last year, raking in around £80 million – which, in fairness, has to be good news for the Dutch.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.