It wouldn't surprise me if the Northern Ireland Assembly did something similar to Belfast International as the Welsh have done and wanted to purchase the airport. They are very keen to grow Long Haul traffic from the province, and have proposed to scrap the Air Passenger Duty.
Interesting idea but not likely unless they were to do what Northern Ireland's aviation industry has been calling for for a long time and create an aviation development strategy. Then there would be all the crying from BHD so I'm not sure it is doable....