State support for inbound one-off sporting events, including golf tournaments and American football games, is promoted by the beneficiaries on the basis that there will be an economic boost, routinely expressed in extra jobs or tax revenues.  Their efforts are often successful despite the tendency for exaggeration, since there is no longer any independent oversight of dodgy cost-benefit studies by the Department of Public Expenditure.  Introduced with great fanfare in 2012 during the Troika period, the Public Spending Code has been abandoned, and the field is clear for solo runs by state and private lobbyists. There is external trade in…

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