Former world figures are making big money on the after-dinner speech circuit, but are they worth the cost, asks Joe Humphreys.
Whoever said talk was cheap has obviously never tried to book Bill Clinton for an event. The former US president breezed into town this week, leaving a tab reputed to be in excess of €150,000 for some private meetings and a couple of short public speaking engagements. Hardly surprising, in one sense. "Bubba", after all, has an undisputed A-list rating on the after-dinner speech circuit.
Yet the pay-for-appearance practice raises questions both for Clinton and those charities all-too-eager to engage his services. Aside from the obvious question of "who pays?", one has to ask: what moral authority has a mouth for hire?
Neither Clinton's handlers nor the organisers of his visit were keen on discussing the grubby issue of money. It is understood, however, the trip was funded by a small group of businessmen who, in effect, donated the former president's services to charity.
RehabCare, which hosted the centrepiece event of his visit, a €500-a-head gala dinner at CityWest Hotel on Monday night, said all proceeds from the occasion would go directly to the organisation. Similarly, The Rose Project, which hosted a breakfast with Clinton the following morning, said it paid no appearance fee to the former president.
Nobel laureate John Hume and businessman Denis O'Brien separately liaised with Clinton on each event. Aside from attending the two fundraisers, Clinton hooked up with Dermot Desmond, Michael Smurfit and JP McManus for a four-ball at the K Club in Co Kildare. He also had a private audience with some corporate sponsors of his Clinton Foundation before jetting off to Asia in his capacity as special envoy of the UN secretary-general, overseeing the tsunami relief effort.
According to the most recent figures filed by his wife Hillary to the US Senate, the former president earned a total of $13 million (€10.37 million) from just over 80 speaking engagements in 2002 and 2003. While the number of engagements fell steadily in that period, his average earning per event rose from about $150,000 to $161,000.
Clinton, who is expected to net over $10 million from his autobiography published last year, is represented by the Harry Walker Agency in New York. The "exclusive lecture" firm has hundreds of big and not-so-big names on its books, including Irishmen Bono, Peter Sutherland, Pat Cox and John Bruton. The latter is said by the agency to have "played a key role in the development of the Euro . . . He can speak with great authority on the economy and on future trends in Europe and the world".
BOOKING SUCH SPEAKERS has obvious attractions for charities. The two Clinton fundraisers this week netted more than €750,000 in total. But similar events have proved less successful. In 1999, Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was paid £97,973 (€124,000) for his appearance at a cancer charity fundraiser in Dublin - half the money raised on the night.
Justin O'Brien, chief executive of the Circle housing agency, and a member of a governmental advisory group on the regulation of the voluntary sector, said he had no problem with charities paying public figures to attend events "so long as it is done in a transparent way". "An international speaker may well cost you money. That might not always be acceptable to the public. But if you want to get a debate going you may feel it's worth it."
Celebrity speakers don't always offer a discount for charities or, for that matter, student debating clubs, as outgoing auditor of the UCD L&H Society Frank Kennedy testifies. "We got a letter back this year from [ former New York mayor] Rudy Giuliani to say he would love to come and speak to us. But then it mentioned a fee of four hundred grand."
With a policy of not paying appearance money, the L&H has used other methods of luring celebrities to Belfield. Recently, the former footballer Gary Lineker agreed to attend a debate, and waive his reported £25,000 fee for the promise of a "James Joyce Award".
In fairness to Clinton, he no longer seems to be in public speaking for the money, his legal debts over impeachment proceedings now apparently cleared. Both Mary Donohoe of The Rose Project and Angela Kerins of RehabCare said they found him to be genuinely concerned about the causes, namely tackling Aids and suicide prevention. "He said he wanted to come back to look at our services," Kerins noted.
But if you were looking to book the former US president, what sort of bang would you get for your buck? Well, in the course of his 25-minute address to 1,000 paying guests at CityWest, Clinton told the following yarn about two elderly men of Scottish Protestant heritage in his native Arkansas, described by Clinton as "the most insular state in America": "One of them said to the other, 'Did you hear the Pope died?' And the other guy said, 'No, I hate to hear that; I kind of like him. What happens now?' 'They got to elect a new one.' He said, 'Well, do they have a candidate?' He said, 'No, not really, but I hope the Catholics don't get it this time; they have had it long enough!'"
At agency rates, that joke, as told by Clinton, would cost you just under €2,500. But, then, many would say he is worth it.