If EI is sold and the TA routes are chopped, where does that leave Irelands future US tourist income? You've just given up the right to self determination in one of the biggest markets this country has.
Sure, there may be others prepared to pick up the routes...maybe, but only under their own terms surely! And as aeroskid has pointed out...who will volunteer to operate a wildly uneconomic government policy that was designed only to please a small but powerful lobby in the west of Ireland, and was foisted (as has every other disastrous government whim) on an unprotesting and docile Aer Lingus.
This country has already lost control of its telecoms development to an outside owner. All plans for broadband high-speed internet services are now shelved. Who's going to pay for the cost of installing the infrastructure for such development? If the foreign owners won't, then who will? And what does that mean for Irelands competitiveness in the global IT business?
The off-loading of strategic state assets might seem like good policy today...popular too with a brain-washed electorate. But when the repercussions hit home in the coming years, it will be too late to undo the damage.