J636
I believe the UK were one of the first movers to think about hammering the travel and holiday industry well back into the nineties, and long before ROI ever thought like many other European countries about applying a tax of this kind. Sure they had a tax in the south of Ireland for a short period of time but at no stage during that period was the UK/NI exempt from a tax.
Agree with much of your second point. But the simple question is - if NI is to have any hope of trying to pull its own weight economically, why then persist in punishing the small private sector, which is where virtually all of the NI aviation industry is situated, and still expect them to grow and expand to take away a little of the dependence on Treasury in London. The big irony is that it is an arguably outdated, Government supported, fat-cat organisation in Dublin which is exerting the pressure on NI air transport. A bit short-sighted all round, to say the least, surely?