Daniel richer to tune of €4.9m

Entertainer Daniel O’Donnell is singing all the way to the bank as accounts show the singer’s main firm has almost doubled its accumulated profits to €4.9m in the past three years.

A household name in Ireland and the UK for more than two decades, the 50-year-old multi-award winning entertainer’s finances have strengthened steadily.

This is confirmed in returns recently filed by O’Donnell’s main entertainment firm, DOD Promotions Ltd, for 2011, 2010, and 2009.

The accounts for the three years show the firm’s accumulated profits have risen by 67% over the period — climbing from €2.92m in 2009 to €4.98m at the end of Oct 2011.

The profits for 2011 alone amounted to €307,000, with profits of €459,538 in 2010 that followed profits of €1.2m in 2009.

The Donegal entertainer has sold more than 10 million records and this June received the freedom of Donegal in recognition of his contribution to music and his ambassadorial role for Donegal.

The figures for DOD Promotions Ltd show O’Donnell’s firm increased its cash pile last year from €507,676 to €666,632 last year.

A major contributor to the wealth of DOD Promotions is O’Donnell’s touring company, Brockwell Ltd.

The figures show DOD Promotions Ltd received €429,277 last year from Brockwell and was due an additional €1m from Brockwell Ltd at year end.

The abridged accounts for DOD Promotions Ltd do not provide a profit and loss account that would include a turnover figure. However, they do disclose that last year the firm paid €127,369 in corporation tax. The returns show Daniel O’Donnell’s long-serving manager, Sean Reilly, serves as a director on DOD Promotions.

O’Donnell said money is not a motivating factor for him in his career.

“I’ve never sung to make money,” he wrote on his website. “When I’m performing I never think about how much I’m making on the night. I sing because I love it and the money is just a byproduct of what I do.

“My biggest payment is being on the stage and that is a big part of the secret of my success. If it all ended tomorrow, I couldn’t say there is anything the world could have offered me that is better than what I have.”

Earlier this year, 1,000 people — some travelling from Canada and Scotland — came to see their idol cut the ribbon on the Daniel O’Donnell visitor centre in his home town of Dungloe.

The centre contains memorabilia from O’Donnell’s career and, in a recent post, he said the centre “has surpassed all of our expectations with over 5,000 visitors through the centre”.