Aer Rianta has been under the cosh a bit recently, what with the ending of duty-free sales with the EU and the ongoing battles with Ryanair over the cost of landing slots and new terminals.

Nice then, to see our national, State-supported airports authority looking further afield in an effort to make some money.

Having secured a stake in Birmingham Airport and Dusseldorf Airport, it appears Aer Rianta is now considering a bid for a minority stake in Hamburg Airport, one of Germany's larger airports, and profitable at that.

Understandably, Aer Rianta is looking at making such a move arm-in-arm with its partner in the Dusseldorf venture - German engineering company Hochtief. Unfortunately, Hochtief may be known to the authorities for all the wrong reasons. Its recent successful tender for a massive expansion at Berlin Airport was thrown out by the courts after prosecutors started an investigation into fraud allegations involving senior employees of the company and executives involved in the tender process. Just the sort of partner you'd want when embarking on sensitive acquisitions abroad.