Quid pro Quo is all the rage in America at the minute.
The Mayor of New York Eric Adams (below) got his. In return for joining Team Trump as water boy, he has had charges of corruption, which in the best tradition of big city mayors could have landed him in the chokey, dismissed.
The Ukrainians are about to get theirs. If they cough up their motherlode of critical minerals, President Trump just might keep the Russian Bear, if not exactly out of their Lebensraum, at least out of their Wohnzimmer.
So isn't it time the Irish of America got a bit of the action?
This week, dozens of Irish Government ministers (no, that isn't an exaggeration) will fan out around the globe bringing with them the catechism of St Patrick, which after all the snakes stuff and splitting the G, is mainly about how the the current tax regime and trading arrangements with the Irish Republic are a universal good, up there with the Ebola Vaccine and the Gulf Stream.
Eight plenipotentiaries will touch down in the U.S., heading disproportionately to Red states (though that's not so difficult post-November 24) to appear on St Patrick's Day Parade podiums where they will repeat the talking points of former Taoiseach Simon Harris.
Now one step down in the goverment pecking order, it was Tánaiste Harris who had the brainwave that when times get Trump tough in the U.S. it's time to call on Irish America (again). No one, he assured his dutiful diplomats, can do a better job of defending the Irish Republic's fláithiúlach tax regime for American multinationals than, well, Americans. So cue the rolling out of Irish Americans to nudge President Trump towards a more benign view of cut-price Irish tax arrangements than that of his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick (below) who is taking aim at American companies living it large in Ireland. Secretary Lutnick fumes that it is "a nonsense that Ireland of all places runs a trade surplus" at the expense of the US.
Which is certainly not fiddles and flutes to the ear of Simon Harris who predicts that just three American multinationals doing a reverse ferret on the Irish economy would be an $11bn dollar hit to the Revenue Commissioners.
So as Irish America rushes to the barricades, this is a perfect time for quid pro quo. What shape could that take? What might an $11bn thank you look like to the legions of Irish Americans stepping up again to defend an Irish tax regime which, as trade secretary in the Trump 1.0 administration Robert Emmet Lightizer points out is clearly not in their interest. Well, a vote in Irish Presidential elections would be a good starting point.
After all, this is the same Robert Emmet who was almost hung, drawn and quartered by our Celtic cousins in 2019 after he deftly parked a potential 25 per cent tariff on Irish whiskey and balanced the books by transferring it across to Scotch (resulting in a half billion dollar hit to Scotch exports). So, the views of the bold Robert and Americans of like mind will not be easily dismissed.
F: Flaithiúlach – Generous, Princely
This word contains flaith meaning lord, who in mediaeval times was expected to bestow his wealth upon others.
Of course nowadays, generosity is not only confined to the upper echelons of our society. pic.twitter.com/fbN5SQ23Xj
— Ireland at the Council of Europe (@IrishRepCoE) March 9, 2024
But the widening of the franchise in Irish Presidential elections to Irish American citizens in the U.S. might sweeten the pill. If the relationship between Ireland and Irish America is really to be a two-way street rather than one of Dublin 'leveraging' or 'exploiting' her "exiled children in America", then let's deliver on a promise of votes for the diaspora which is over a decade-old.
Extending the vote to the diaspora was recommended by the Irish Government's Citizens Assembly on the Constitution back in 2013. In time-honoured fashion, that recommendation was accepted by the Irish Government and the report was then buried.
Why the delay? Well, there is one school of thought which believes there are those in Government Buildings in Dublin who fear that the diaspora would all plump for the Sinn Féin standard-bearer if 'trusted' with the vote in an Irish poll. Anyone who really knows Irish America knows its political views are as diverse as they are disputatious but try telling that to the guys in Dublin with the keys to the Cabinet drinks cabinet.
And thus it seems that, for fear of Sinn Féin fans, primarily in Britain and the U.S., the Irish Government lags behind its European partners in extending the vote to its diaspora? 23 EU countries have regulations to allow their citizens abroad to vote in EU countries. The Irish Government is not among them.
Globally, 108 countries offer some voting rights to citizens living abroad. The Irish Government isn't in that club either.
It's time to call time on the tardy treatment of Irish citizens living in the United States.
12 years on, the Irish Government, has had its quid - witness the strongest economy in Europe and a peace process the envy of the world — so, a word about that quo, Micheál.
