LAST YEAR BONO told Gay Byrne that he helped bring companies like Google and Facebook to Ireland.

While most assumed that any promotional work the U2 frontman did for Ireland was on a casual basis, it turns out it he has worked on some “specific projects” with the IDA.

In an interview with Hot Press magazine published this week, Bono was asked about what he has done “behind the scenes” to help out during the recession.

He said he had misgivings about what he could do because for him and U2 “philanthropy is a personal and private matter”.

“We thought it would be show business in all the wrong ways to to do something we don’t believe in just to make people like us,” he explained.

Despite this, he felt that the Irish public were “badly treated” in how “the public bailed out the private sector wrongdoing”.

“Most people know it and what we felt, what we could be useful with, was trying to get more companies to come to Ireland. So we went to work for the IDA. And I do, I still do.

So does he? The IDA says yes. Bono has and continues to work for the group in building connections. An IDA spokesman confirmed this:

“Bono has worked with IDA Ireland on a number of specific projects and used his influence very positively on those occasions,” the said.

Bono’s main work is to tell the Irish story through his own connections in the investment world, something he does very well. He is among a range of people who’ve helped sell the Ireland story over the last few years and IDA believes his contribution will remain very important in that context.

So there you have it.

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