Denis O'Brien has cost us taxpayers not only what he might have paid in tax were he tax-resident here, but the cost of the Moriarty tribunal module at present examining a web of relationships including whether or not there is a link between Denis O'Brien and Michael Lowry. But Denis O'Brien is known to be personally generous and there's an O'Brien Foundation, aimed at relieving disadvantage. Anthony O'Reilly (I'm not being rude . . . I just can't bring myself any more to call anybody 'Sir') has been a most important conduit of generosity towards Ireland through founding and guiding the Ireland Fund. Dermot Desmond must be pretty generous personally, too, since he was delighted to help keep Charles J Haughey in the Haughey style, and he also gives his valuable time in quarters one might not expect, such as being a trustee of the Chester Beatty Library. Michael Smurfit donated, I presume, the business school named after him, and Tony O'Reilly the same.

For all I know, other local billionaires and multi-millionaires have track records like these, but prefer to keep quiet. Though I can't recall at present any stories to do with charity exercised by Enya or the Roche family or most of the Dunne family or any of the madly rich property guys who have made their millions out of Ireland . . . the fabric of Ireland, our country . . . and nothing else.

Hospitals, clinics, community centres, sports parks, libraries, minibus networks, airports . . . we could resource them lavishly, I suppose, if the big taxpayers felt like sticking around.

Unlike quite a few countries I could name, Ireland's civil service is almost completely honest, and tax paid finds its way into the exchequer and out again into the social structure. This was, on the whole, true even when we had a Taoiseach who saw his own lifestyle as a worthy charity.

But taxing the rich isn't the only change we might contemplate. I doubt that any suggestion could be less popular . . . the 'poor mouth' is not just a habit of Irish people but a superstition: if fate doesn't notice that we're doing well then maybe fate won't punish us . . . but a lot of ordinary Irish people are now in a position to exercise philanthropy on a small scale themselves. And the rich aren't the only people who owe something to the community. I was intrigued by a radio ad I kept hearing when I was in the catchment area of radio stations in Boston, USA, recently. It urged people to donate their used cars and boats to charity . . .

local charity. I gather that someone comes to your house and gives you all the necessary documents for your tax return . . . maybe this kind of thing attracts tax reliefs . . . and then they take away your vehicle and its value ends up redirected at the needy in your community. This seems almost too good to be true. But it suggests how people who are not very rich but have some surplus . . . and many of us are beginning to fit into that category . . .

might start incorporating serious sharing into their affairs.

We were very good at being poor. All kinds of tricks and stratagems passed down the generations taught us how to knock out a good life even with no money.

But what about the challenge of having more than we need? As it is, people seem to look no further than their own families.

They buy everything they possibly can for their kids, but while the kids belong to a fairly modest peer group, as most Irish kids seem to me still to do, that doesn't cost all that much. The young adults want to 'get on the property ladder'; if there are a pair of them in it and no children, that leaves a surplus, too. The middle-aged go off on holidays and luxury weekends in every hotel in Ireland. They could afford a hundred years of that on what the house they're going to leave behind is worth.

Soon, after some more years of near-full employment and low interest rates, quite a few Irish people will face the same challenge as Bill and Melinda Gates. How do you turn out from yourself and your family towards the world, and spend money out there and spend it well? It's worth thinking about. Maybe you'll find you have, say, 800 a year to give away. After all, the chief beneficiary will be yourself. It may well be a breakthrough experience to give at all.

What's more, for sure, its the only way you'll ever have a distant taste of what it must be like to be Denis O'Brien.