Bono has said he is very proud of the role the Government is playing is eradicating famine and hunger in the Third World.
He said African countries were seeking to replicate the success of the Irish economy because Ireland had come from further behind any other country in modern history to achieve the levels of prosperity currently being enjoyed.
The U2 singer was speaking at University College Cork, where he attended a meeting of the Government's Hunger Task Force, of which he is a member.
This year the Government will spend €815m on Third World aid. Bono said Ireland's aid record and its recent prosperity gave this country an authority when advising African nations on their problems.
The task force chairman, former Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh, said he believes the record amounts of money being allocated could be spent better and he said it was the job of the task force to ensure that that happened.
Bono also defended the decision by U2 to move part of the band's business from Ireland to the Netherlands to reduce his tax bill and that of the other band members.
He said this country's prosperity had been achieved through tax innovation and it would be churlish to criticise U2 for being innovative in relation to their tax affairs when that is what people were encouraged to do and that is what made the country prosperous.
He said U2 paid taxes not only to the letter of the law but to the spirit of the law too. He said anybody who knew him would know that he would not ask anyone to do something which he was not prepared to do himself.
Around the world he had been asking governments to increase their spend on Third World aid by something like 0.2% and he was sure nobody was seriously suggesting that U2 were not up to that too.
