But when UK pilots started having their EASA ATPLs issued in Ireland and France this year....
I think it was at the May 2011 EASA Part-FCL Partnership Group meeting that I discussed this with an IAA member. He told me that several pilots had changed their 'State of Licence Issue' to Ireland as a result of their more pragmatic interpretation of the requirements....and would be happy to welcome further applications as necessary.
I passed this information on to 'Fartmaster', which confirmed what he'd already established.
This is indeed as derogation, Dan, as the action has been taken under the provisions of Article 14(6) of the Aircrew Regulation; because EASA has recommended the Article 14(6) proposal and due to the time it takes for a 14(6) to be formally agreed, the CAA has raised an Article 14(4) exemption of its own, allowing the new policy to be adopted
for UK-issued IRs with immediate effect. A future EASA working group should then bring it into the Regulation proper.
There are now a quite absurd number of Article 14(4) and Article 14(6) exemptions in place - which only goes to show how fundamentally unfit for purpose the whole €urocratic farce of EASA really is!