Whatever about the super elite, new transnational football leagues for disadvantaged European cities could happen very quickly. The top clubs in the League of Ireland need to get their skates on, as the current model is not working here.
Transport Minister Eamon Ryan has announced a new strategy to prioritise the development of the national rail network at the expense of the road system. It’s a plan that is fundamentally flawed and the politicians who promote it won’t be around to answer the questions when it fails.
Careful project selection is being supplanted with advance political commitment to unevaluated schemes, after which "delivery" becomes an obligation regardless of value for money.
The potential cost of Nato membership has not featured in the arguments of those anxious to retain neutrality, but it should. The figures are scary and joining Nato is the biggest public expenditure project ever proposed in this country.
The government is talking about a budgetary stimulus and the creation of a sovereign wealth fund. Given the nature of the economy, both ideas are wrong.
It is salutary that the Bertie Bowl was abandoned, not because the economic evaluation found it wanting, but by political decision. The dead hand of the Department of Finance was insufficiently energised to counter a business case commissioned by the project promoters.
There are trans-national leagues in every other popular spectator sport, including rugby union, rugby league and basketball. There is no ‘European sporting model’, it is unique to professional football.
Rivalry within and between sporting codes has inhibited ground-sharing and taxpayers’ money has already been spent, or allocated, for stadium developments without persuasive plans for adequate utilisation. Or any credible plans at all.
The LIV Golf and the aborted European football super league have been highly controversial. Ultimately, however, the battle for control of sport will be determined in the courts, and the anti-trust tide has been turning in both Europe and America.
Current energy and transport plans show lessons from the hundreds of millions of euros wasted on peat-fired power stations have not been learned. Existing rules provide for the scrutiny needed to avoid this, but government departments simply ignore them.
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