Let the tax exiles support Irish aid

Following deliberations by the Oireachtas Sub-committee on Finance last week on the subject of philanthropy, Minister Noonan has promptly declared that a proposition to extend the right of multimillionaire tax exiles to reside in Ireland for up to 244 days per year, without any further liability to Irish taxation, “attractive”, if they were to buy this right in the form of philanthropic payments of €15m to unspecified charities over a period of 10 years.

It is odd that he should find this attractive at a time when the State is waging a relentless and intensive public relations war across the globe to persuade a sceptical public that Ireland is not an easy touch when it comes to tax avoidance following the Apple Corporation tax controversy and the deliberations of the G8 leaders in Enniskillen on enhanced international tax transparency.

Apart from that, such a proposition could only have potential merit in Ireland if it is clearly seen to benefit society as whole — those that reside in the country, without reservation and diligently serve the national interest, for up to 52 weeks and not merely 34 weeks.

The fact that the leadership of many charities in Ireland receive remuneration of a scale that is dazzling in its magnitude and that the State does not even have a charity commissioner to oversee these unregulated regimes hardly strengthens the proposition, nor make it attractive, in the eyes of ordinary hardworking, compliant, taxpayers struggling, with incredible difficulty, to make ends meet.

However, were the proceeds of such a proposition to be applied, for example, exclusively to the Government’s Irish Aid Programme, taxpayers in general would be immediately relieved of some of the obligation to fund this programme through additional borrowings of €600m per annum. The Government would be directly accountable to the citizens for the promotion and impact of its ‘tax breaks for tax exiles’ strategy. That strategy could become an iconic symbol of Ireland’s foreign policy, a moment when our influence in the world is defined by the off-balance sheet transactions of whom we attract and how much they donate.

The capacity of philanthropy in Ireland and their generous multimillionaire tax-exile patrons to personally embrace the United Nations Millennium Development Goals would be laudable and give some tangible expression to the advocacy of Bono and his belief that 80% of Irish people support them — as the funding of Irish Aid were to become discretionary and not merely another unaffordable, titanic, tax burden.

Myles Duffy

Glenageary

Co Dublin