Apparently it is a deal done on not much more than a handshake and not discussed in polite company And a lot of critical voices within the R.O.I who believe they should be able to effectively police their own airspace.

Some noises made recently about them maybe buying Swedish jets.

A good point however do we really want to get into a bidding war with China as to how much money we give a despicable regime?

China is actually doing some good in building railways and transport infrastructure in Africa however it comes at a high political price. The Chinese are quite happy to ignore human rights abuses whilst arm twisting the local government to get its way.

I think the way we compete is to allow Africa greater access to our markets.

Yeah, I've heard about that as well.

But the Irish are still undecided as to whether they want to spend the time building the IKEA sets.

In a nut shell it's influencing money.
"We will pay you this but expect this now or later"

Who cares if it's legal or not, is some third world country going to sue? We've more people living off food banks and facing unemployment/recession. Charity begins at home and home is where it should stay.

They have been using their financial clout in pakistan for years. Over the last 10 years have been investing heavily in the Caribbean