Coverage and criticism of Obama visit offers some food for thought

I WAS guilty too, like most of the media, and I’m sorry.

I shouldn’t have done it. A woman and her two daughters made a short visit to Dublin and Wicklow, for little more than 24 hours, saw Riverdance, visited Trinity, went to Glendalough, visited a restaurant to eat dinner and a pub to eat lunch, stayed overnight at a nice hotel and I, like others, was foolish enough to treat this as if it was news.

My only consolation was that I gave this short tourist visit only about six minutes of Monday evening’s two and a half hour show and a little bit more time on Tuesday. I realised we may have jumped the shark though midway through Tuesday’s segment when the Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor, without any prompting on my part, started to describe what Michelle Obama was wearing and called her “a rock chick”.

Well, that’s one way of describing the wife of the president of the United States of America.

Mitchell O’Connor was struck dumb, however, when I asked her if she saw any irony in the first lady meeting Bono for lunch in Dalkey, given that the G8 meeting her husband was attending in Fermanagh was discussing the issue of tax evasion and tax avoidance. Bono’s band U2, for those who don’t know, has arranged his tax affairs in such a way, via the Netherlands, to deliberately limit the amount of money he pays in tax in Ireland. He does so despite having lectured this Government on its spending on overseas aid, believing that the money provided is not enough, even though this money comes from tax revenues or, more accurately, is borrowed from elsewhere because we don’t have enough tax revenues to cover the bills.

Mitchell O’Connor had nothing to say about this, but she was able to give me the menu on offer in Finnegans and tell me what Mrs Obama chose to eat. I admit I did ask what she had to drink, but only because there had been issues raised earlier in the week about the appropriateness of asking her to drink Guinness and to be photographed doing so (because, apparently, it raises issues about stereotyping the Irish as always wanting to put a drink in a visitor’s hand. Apparently, she sipped a drop of Guinness and then turned to some wine instead.) The Hollywood-style treatment that the Obamas received on their visit — treated as if celebs or royalty — was somewhat embarrassing but not new. We sometimes do it with our own politicians — look at the way Bertie Ahern used to be treated — but are far too easily seduced by Americans who flatter us.

Barrack Obama was it this week, giving a speech in Belfast that made many in the country go weak at the knees. The president gives a good speech, it must be said. But so what? Nice words and nice sentiments, with a bit of flattery and ladles of optimism, plenty of celebration and notes of wise caution and we’re all talking about how great he is. But let’s be honest: how exciting now is Obama really to us? How have his actions greatly differed from George Bush before him? What has he done except for making us admire his brilliant oratory? How limited is our knowledge and appreciation of what he is really doing in office, how much are we conditioned by a media bias that Democrats are good and Republicans are bad?

This analysis is tame compared to Clare Daly’s tour de force in the Dáil which caught Taoiseach Enda Kenny badly on the hop and unprepared to deliver an effective response. Daly’s rhetoric both appalled and was celebrated, but many were very amused when she blasted on about the “slobbering” towards Obama and accused us of being “a nation of pimps, prostituting ourselves in return for a pat on the head”. Her question as to whether the cabinet was going to be decked out in “leprechaun hats decorated with a bit of stars and stripes” was a very good line, and given the things the Obamas had been brought to visit not entirely inapt.

Funnily enough though Michelle Obama’s choice of lunchtime company was possibly the most interesting and newsworthy part of the week. (One of the best jokes from a listener via text was that she was engaged in a holding operation, to prevent Bono from sticking his oar in at Fermanagh, where her husband and other world leaders were dealing with the sticky problem of a more equitable tax system). Bono is giving little away as to what they were talking about. It may be that Michelle Obama was a bit star-struck and wanted the company of the rock star as much as he wanted hers. Who knows, and really who cares? There are some people who regard criticism of Bono as unnecessary begrudgery.

These may be some of the same people who cheer-led the reaction to the Obama visit on the basis that it “puts Ireland on the map” (a ridiculous cliché, I know) or is some sort of great endorsement for our tourist industry. These can be the same people who call you a cynic if you don’t go weak at the knees at the idea of Tom Cruise accepting a certification of Irish heritage. They are often too the people who are too easily impressed by wealth as much as fame, who ask few questions about the methods by which great wealth is accumulated or the power that is exercised in protecting it, often at the expense of the less well-off.

It is a shame that the reputation of one of Ireland’s most successful commercial and artistic successes (they are not mutually exclusive) has been tarnished by his treatment of his tax affairs.

It is only fair to emphasise that Bono breaks no laws in what he does in reducing his tax bill to as low as is possible.

MOST people pay as little as possible but don’t get the opportunities that Bono and other billionaires do to legally reduce their payments as a proportion of their income. It is possible that Bono still pays a six-figure sum in tax in Ireland each year, from money earned in Ireland, but the proportion of his income that he pays in tax in Ireland is almost certainly lower than that of almost all of you reading this. Maybe you think it is alright that income derived elsewhere is taxed elsewhere, for the benefit of the citizens of the Netherlands, for example, even if only part of the income is generated there, but I prefer the American model: citizens of the US pay tax in the US on their global income.

Bono’s bigger problem is his demand as to how governments spend their money and how it should be on his pet project: reducing third world debt. Bono’s commitment to this endeavour has been impressive. It has not been flash in the pan and is sincere; there may be issues as to how effective his efforts have been. I have no problem with Bono and the rest of U2 being rich.

They have an extraordinary talent and deserve to exploit it commercially. But it is difficult to shout about unfair tax systems when you are benefiting from it yourself to be even richer than is really fair or necessary.

*The Last Word with Matt Cooper is broadcast on 100-102 Today FM, Monday to Friday, 4.30pm to 7pm.