In 1969, perhaps to make up for its reputation for “banning and exiling its greatest literary names,” such as Joyce, Beckett, Wilde and Shaw, Ireland’s then-finance minister Charles Haughey enacted a rule declaring “All income from a ‘creative’ work such as a novel, play or song would be exempt from tax.” Haughey told bestselling British author Frederick Forsyth, who immediately moved to Ireland, that the idea of the plan was “not so much to bring you bastards in, but to stop the outflow of Irish talent.” But as Angelique Chrisafis reports in a Guardian story, the move to Ireland by still one more in an ongoing series of bestselling UK writers — in this case Irvine Welsh — seems to have triggered secret talks within the Irish government on “whether to scrap the scheme.” And the recent release of the names of 1,000 or so artists getting the tax sanctions “caused sharp intakes of breath” when it was revealed to include major moneymakers from writer Michel Houellebecq to musicians Sinead O’Connor and Elvis Costello. But one politician says the release of the list was a “smokescreen” meant to “detract from the real issue that the top 400 earners in Ireland paid little or no tax thanks to other more questionable schemes.” Labour politician Joan Burton says “80% of tax-exempt writers and artists earned less than 50,000 a year and needed to be supported.” And Chrisafis says the Irish Arts Council is also “outraged,” and argues that Ireland should not retract “one of the most enlightened pieces of legislation ever introduced for the arts in any country.”