It seems tourism groups are finally noticing the difference between Aer Lingus and Ryanair.
The former can, to its continuing misfortune - hence the Shannon stopover - be told "you're doing x, y, z . . ." and have to put up with it. Ryanair is in a position to tell people to "sod off", as it seems to be doing. It may well be that FR can add more services to SNN, as it's offered to do in the past, but Dublin represents huge opportunities for a low cost carrier.
That said, behind the scenes, one has to wonder if EI is frantically lobbying to prevent FR being allowed to set up a hub at DUB, which would certainly make life extremely difficult in Europe.
Perhaps it's time WW and other senior EI people stood up and started ranting a bit, a la MO'L; after all, having been through quite a few CEOs over the past few years, they're hardly going to sack someone for expressing an opinion?