0. How Global Irish Community Bonds can inspire a Third Sector Economy

One Global Irish Community

Now Global Irish Community Bonds can inspire a Third Sector Economy through Community Cooperative Chaord enterprises. Ireland is at its best when Communities come together. Covid-19 reawakened in Global Irish Communities the unquenchable spirit that lies burning just beneath the surface in all Irish People, a gift we inherited from our ancestors, that was born of centuries of suppression. In America, the Fighting Irish is the phrase coined initially to characterise the Irish soldiers’ contribution to their Civil War, which spirit is still carried with honour to this day by the Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish Athletic teams. At home, every Irish Farmer understands Meitheal, the Irish expression of the ancient and universal appliance of cooperation to social needs. The word Meitheal describes the old Irish tradition where people in rural communities gathered together on their neighbours’ farms to help save the hay or some other crop. Each person would help their neighbours who would, in turn, reciprocate. They acted as a team, and everybody benefited in some way. It built up strong friendships and respect among those involved.

Beyond the Call of Duty

In 2020, we saw a society without hierarchy respond to a grave challenge once again, rising in unison during the coronavirus epidemic, displaying a spontaneous outpouring of caring, compassion and empathy, in that time-honoured readiness to go beyond the call of duty. We saw how Ireland was at its very best when our Communities came together as-one. Ireland is renowned for its legendary support of countless charitable causes. In 2020, Communities stood up and stood out, and they saw how a ‘them and us’ culture had crept up on us since the emergence of the Celtic Tiger and divided our society into ‘haves and have-nots’, so they reacted. For a time that looked and left like there was ‘just one us’, however temporary that might prove to be. That was the point when we saw each other, heard each other and believed that what we each had to say mattered. It was a time to listen, to learn and to understand the plight that other people faced in their daily lives. But, when this pandemic ends with a vaccine, as it will, will we go back to our old ways or will we seek to forge a new and more inclusive path for all? Will we embrace those people in society who felt and still may feel excluded – whether financially, economically, digitally or socially – or will they once again be left behind in their Community?

The Global Irish Diaspora

A major crisis is also a significant opportunity, so this is a time for great and lasting change, a chance for change that comes around once in a hundred years. During this coronavirus pandemic, Irish people everywhere demonstrated once again a deep caring for family, friends, neighbours, relations, both at home and abroad. That sense of caring about other people had for too long been quenched by the demands of busy material lives, by that so-called ‘rat race’ that existed in Celtic Tiger days. That was born of the misconception that getting more money would solve all financial issues. Covid-19 released in us again that underlying sense of Community Spirit that has always existed in us and still exists wherever green is worn – to borrow the title of Tim Pat Coogan’s excellent book entitled: Wherever Green is Worn -The Story of the Irish Diaspora (2002). That bond stretched effortlessly across borders in one embrace with our Emigrant Families. Previously, on St Patricks Day, we had seen that expression as an outpouring once a year, a Greening of the world so to speak, when we all became just-one Global Irish Community, if only for a Day.  Covid-19, however, resurrected a deep sense of longing and belonging in Global Irish Communities that had been so well articulated by John O’Donohue in his insightful book, entitled: Eternal Echoes: Exploring Our Hunger To Belong (1998). So, in 2020 came that famous HSE (Health Services Executive) call which went out to the Global Irish to “Be On Call For Ireland”, the response to which was as surprising as it was overwhelming. In that very first month, the HSE received a tremendous response when over 60,000 would-be Care workers registered online to join that COVID-19 recruitment drive.

Inequality

But! Covid-19 spotlighted how deep-rooted Inequality of Opportunity and Reward impacts so profoundly upon the lives of so many Irish people today, both at home and abroad. Its consequences have manifested in all our Communities in the form of income disparity, wealth distribution gap, affordable housing shortages, food dependency, homelessness, child poverty, inadequate elderly care, digital skills deficiency, hospital waiting lists and social exclusion. Collectively, they have crystallised into a rapidly rising Inequality Gap in our society. We should observe again the words of the Oxfam Organisation who are as informed as they are outspoken on Inequality and Poverty issues globally, who said- “Tax havens fuel Inequality and hold back the fight against Poverty. This simply has to stop”, adding insightfully” Powerful corporations and super-rich individuals are exploiting a rigged global system that allows them to avoid paying their fair share of Tax. And it’s the world’s poorest people who pay the price. Since 2015, the richest 1% have more wealth than the rest of the world combined. Such extreme economic Inequality is being fueled by an epidemic of tax evasion and avoidance that has reached an unprecedented scale. Since 2014, a huge number of documents – including the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers scandals – have been leaked by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) unveiling how tax evasion and avoidance have become standard business practice across the globe. Through a complex and loosely regulated tax system, multinational companies and rich individuals actively seek to increase their profits by storing them offshore and avoiding paying taxes in their countries. Tax havens are at the heart of this system. They allow massive amounts of wealth to flow untaxed and in secret, out of reach from tax authorities and regulators. And while some of the tax dodging practices are illegal, many exploit weaknesses in today’s tax system – without breaking any laws. 9 out of 10 of the world’s top 200 companies have a presence in tax havens while corporate investment in tax havens quadrupled between 2001 and 2014.“ concluded Oxfam. So, the root cause of Inequality is undoubtedly attributable primarily to what The Tax Havens, a grave fact that we cannot ignore either.

A Paradigm Shift

Yet! No magical solution has emerged despite decades of exhaustive effort by the best minds of Governments and NGO’s alike? Those Panama & Paradise Papers, however, did shock the world into more collective actions. The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes is the leading international body working on ‘the implementation of global transparency and exchange of information standards’ around the world, and it has accumulated “Offshore Information on 84 million financial accounts, with a total value of €10 trillion.” Investigations have revealed how legal workarounds have enabled rampant tax avoidance, achieved not by breaking any national Laws but by utilising tools to go where those laws do not yet exist. The fact is that our Tax Law-making National Governments are no match for tax avoidance experts, the Tax Consultants of the giant fleet-footed Global Corporations who always remain one step ahead. Solutions are seriously hampered by how Giant Corporations wield their great power in delivering vast numbers of ‘well-paid jobs and notably the associated income taxpayer collection points too’ as a potent instrument of negotiation with any Government. As for the private Tax arm, one prominent Irish Banker famously summed it up like this, telling the Mahon Tribunal in 2000 that avoiding Tax was “like some gigantic Game” played out between tax experts and the Revenue Commissioners. So now that we understand the nature of the problem and its root cause too, how can we fix it?  How do we address Inequality of a scale that is now undermining social stability on a global scale?  Enforcement is not the answer either; the Authorities are no match for the fleet-footed Corporations and their tax experts. Tax Amnesties do not offer good solutions for Individuals either; they are as temporary as they are costly gestures. So what imaginative and urgent solutions can we envisage for Inequality in Ireland? We know the source and scale of the problem but to fix one of that stupendous scale requires not just resolve and dedication but a paradigm shift in all our mindsets.

The Third Sector Economy

And it is in that transformative pandemic moment that the Global Irish Community realised in our hearts that they were ready and capable of building a far better Ireland, to co-create a New Ireland for ourselves and the generations that follow, as our ancestors did before us. We saw how our society had sacrificed and traded our inherited social ‘values’ that benefits everybody for economic ‘value’ extraction that leaves so many behind. Those values are the esteemed Community Values of our forefathers that we have been so privileged to inherit and preserve down through generations, values that they carved out for us through the Ancestral hardships and sacrifices that they bore on our behalf so we could have a better life. The open question to be asked now is, will our post-pandemic New Normal embrace that priceless Inheritance? We may wish it were so, but that will not make it happen, nor can it be the last word on it. There are other real obstacles to that progress. Ireland is deeply in Debt, one that is rapidly rising with Covid-19, continuing for as long as our Economy remains in suspense. Today, we can measure Global and National Debt online daily with World Debt Clocks. In 2020, Ireland has a National Debt of US $227 billion, rising rapidly, and funded by the Financial Bonds market. But, as we had seen post-the 2008 Financial Crash when rates suddenly changed, it can be at the cost of great social misery.        

Global Irish Community Bonds

Yet! There are significant positives there too, with Global Economies in Recession or perhaps Depression mode, money is plentiful and cheap for countries like Ireland. Financial Bonds currently carry a low-cost premium.  And as in all money markets, whatever their source, capital needs a Safe Home first and foremost, and then ideally should earn enough interest to maintain its buying power. So, in such a unique financial climate, we have a colossal opportunity to incentivise attracting significant additional Global Irish Funding back into our Irish Economy. We would achieve this if we issued another Call, this time to Invest in Ireland through new Global Irish Community Bonds, asking our Global Irish in effect to “Bank On Ireland”, this time to co-create a Third Sector Economy with Gaelic Roots. The World Bank has applauded the massive success of the highly effective Diaspora Bond Issues by Israel and India that over decades raised tens of US $ billions from their ex-pats who share an intense patriotism and knowledge of their home economy’s prospects. Global Irish Community Bonds would bear a very close relationship to those issues and be a viable solution given just the collective will, determination and perseverance, backed by socially-minded aspirations.  Such Global Irish Community Bonds would be a socially-minded incentive wherever green is worn, instil a desire to invest in a home country that is ever-present in their minds, and enable others to work their way back home. So what kind of Project would kickstart this New Ireland as it emerges as-one Global Irish Community from this Lockdown? How would Global Irish Community Bonds inspire the creation of a Third Sector Economy with Gaelic Roots to evolve in parallel?

The Community Cooperative Chaord

Community Bonds are, by definition, known as a debt financing tool for issue a by non-profit, charity or co-operative organisation where funders are paid interest for investing in Projects that are intensely meaningful to them. The issuing Community organisation would thus gain access to the vital low-cost capital that they need to continue to grow the Enterprises. These would fill voids in commercial community services, both locally and globally, while providing substantial numbers of sustainable and valuable local jobs in every County and every Village. One such flagship Community Project capable of achieving that goal would be a Global Irish Community Cooperative Chaord, with Community Bond(s) as its funding source. As a digital services provider, it would adopt a digital generation version of the Village Creamery-driven Avonmore Cooperative model that launched in Kilkenny in 1967, yet grew exponentially to become the giant multi-billion €3 Glanbia Plc it is today. It is an Irish based global nutrition group with operations in 32 countries, with products sold or distributed in over 130 countries and employing more than 6,900 workers worldwide, while retaining its roots, its HQ, in Kilkenny to this day. The economic conditions and Community requirements are all in sync right now for another Village-inspired, ground-breaking, 32-County Ireland initiative. This next-generation version would bond every Irish County with their Global Irish Diasporas wherever green is worn, thus co-creating One Global Irish Community. Now Global Irish Community Bonds can inspire a Third Sector Economy through a Community Cooperative Chaord enterprises. Ireland is at its best when Communities come together, unveiling Projects to unlock the potential of their local Towns and Villages in their County.