Madam, - Bono's bizarre predicament was on embarrassing display in Cork last Friday when, after participating in a meeting about tackling world hunger, he sought to defend the decision to move the most profitable part of U2's business out of Ireland to avoid tax.
It was like the theatre of the absurd as the "anti-poverty campaigner" emerged from a meeting of Ireland's Hunger Task Force to face journalists' questions about offshore tax avoidance, when such activities on a global basis have such a devastating effect on the lives of the world's poor.
Would millions be dying every year of hunger and preventable diseases if tax havens used by the very rich, including Bono and U2, did not exist?
The Tax Justice Network has estimated that the funds held in tax havens could generate $255 billion dollars in additional tax revenue annually. This alone is enough to finance the Millennium Development Goals, which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/Aids and providing universal primary education by 2015.
That raises a very important question. Will the Task Force of which Bono is now a member address how tax havens undermine efforts to fund the needs of the world's poorest people? This issue is especially serious in Africa, where the African Union has estimated that as much as $150 billion is lost every year through this form of fiscal abuse - three times what it receives in aid! - Yours, etc,
RONAN TYNAN, Booterstown, Co Dublin.