akerosid
30th Mar 2003, 19:41
After years of prevarication, excuses for inactivity, stonewalling and blatantly cowering before a lobby that believed carrying a big (electoral) stick saved it the trouble of having to speak softly, the Irish gov't has finally given into the reality that the Shannon stopover must go by the wayside.
The EU Commission is expected to take over negotiation of an EU: US bilateral by around June. The SNN stopover is one of the last obstacles to this, but it is now seen that it won't be allowed to get in the way. It's expected that a large payout in terms of regional aid will take its place. How much this will be is anyone's guess, but with the resistance that has been put up for the past years and even decades, you can tell it's going to be pretty big.
However, what matters is that the end is near; there is increasing concern in Irish govt circles about the tourism sector, the war obviously not helping. It will probably be too late for this year, but hopefully next year, with a slightly less turbulent international situation and greater freedom of access to US markets, things will begin to improve. It's irritating that we missed the heady growth of the late 1990s, but good times will come again . . .
The EU Commission is expected to take over negotiation of an EU: US bilateral by around June. The SNN stopover is one of the last obstacles to this, but it is now seen that it won't be allowed to get in the way. It's expected that a large payout in terms of regional aid will take its place. How much this will be is anyone's guess, but with the resistance that has been put up for the past years and even decades, you can tell it's going to be pretty big.
However, what matters is that the end is near; there is increasing concern in Irish govt circles about the tourism sector, the war obviously not helping. It will probably be too late for this year, but hopefully next year, with a slightly less turbulent international situation and greater freedom of access to US markets, things will begin to improve. It's irritating that we missed the heady growth of the late 1990s, but good times will come again . . .