SPECIAL tax designation is a wondrous phenomenon. It has led to vast areas of raised bogland in east Mayo, a wilderness but for the odd sheep, quadrupling in value overnight.
It is not just the 200 acres to be designated around the most important piece of infrastructure for many miles, Knock Airport. Yesterday, the area of interest seemed to be extending as quick as a dry bog fire to townlands touching on Charlestown, Kiltimagh, Ballyhaunis, Claremorris, Swinford and Knock itself.
The spark was the announcement on Tuesday by local TD and Minister for Tourism and Trade, Mr Kenny, that special tax reliefs would apply to the area immediately surrounding what local people call Horan International. The tax designation is predicted to generate at least 2,000 jobs within three years and 5,000 over a longer period.
The announcement was all the more welcome because of a deal tying in a US company, Alliance International, which is closely associated with the billionaire, Mr Ross Perot. The company plans to locate a freight clearance centre to service Europe at Knock. While talk of special tax designation for the airport was rife, a tie in with Alliance International has come as a surprise to many outside Mayo. Within the county, it was the worst kept secret.
The process was two years in the making, with Mr Kenny closely involved with the airport hoard in negotiations. The project gathered momentum - but was subjected to a strict confidentiality clause when he travelled last autumn to Dallas to meet senior executives of Alliance International.
It seems, however, that most difficulty in recent months came from the other direction - the European Commission. The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, in Ballina some weeks ago, stressed the sensitivity of granting such special tax designation status in the EU context.
He quietly reassured Fine Gael stalwarts, increasingly concerned about an imminent general election dogfight in Mayo, that it was still on course but told them to keep their hats on it. Clearly, the EU circle has been squared since.
The political implications are a little easier to chart as the six sitting TDs for Mayo, including three Fine Gael deputies, prepare to fight for five seats in a revised constituency. Designation comes to the heart of "old East Mayo" (formerly a three seater) which is "Jim Higgins country", a strong base of the Government Chief Whip and Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach.
Mr Higgins has claimed some of the kudos. While this contention is warranted to a degree, his rival and party colleague, Mr Kenny, exerted most influence in drawing up and clinching the deal, according to sources close to the negotiations.
Significance was being attached in some political quarters to Mr Higgins's welcoming the announcement but congratulating in the first place the Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, for his role.
Alliance International services a broad range of companies and much of its business involves leasing warehousing. It is expected that the designation will also attract international service and export manufacturing companies and may sway some prominent US businessmen, originally from Mayo, to invest in the facility or in ancillary facilities such as hotel accommodation.
Special tax designation, Mr Kenny believes, is the means to overcoming the west's economic disadvantage "at a stroke". An exact figure on the level of investment, however, is difficult to pin down. Some estimate an initial figure of about £30 million.
Mayo was placing much faith in Mr Kenny, who said the project would he based on an industrial model used for Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas, where Alliance International has facilitated a $5 billion investment leading to the creation of 20,000 jobs.
Mayo would be happy with a fraction of that, according to Fine Gael councillor, Mr John Flannery, who as chairman of the local authority was party to discussions with US interests in 1995. "It's a wonderful day for Mayo. Knock Airport has an 8,500 foot runway, the same as San Diego, California, which has just one runway but generates huge commercial and passenger business. We have that kind of potential as a gateway into Europe.
Mayo County Council is already building a £1.75 million access road to the airport. The designated land is expected to be on either side of the road.
The Castlebar based development company, formed between the board and Alliance International (headed by Mr Ross Perot Jnr), is making preparations for a press conference in about two weeks when further details will he announced. The US company has been granted special tax status. This is expected to enable it to finalise its plans.
There was a question on many Mayo lips yesterday. What would the late Monsignor James Horan and the writer and journalist John Healy, great defenders of an airport built on a "foggy, boggy hill", make of it all? The answer, perhaps - another miracle at Knock.
. Government sources said yesterday that the amendments to the Finance Bill, containing the special tax reliefs for new areas, were agreed by the three party leaders prior to Tuesday's Cabinet meeting, writes Geraldine Kennedy, Political Correspondent.
There was nothing sinister in the fact that two Labour TDs were the first to announce the creation of two enterprise zones at Finglas in north Dublin, and Gallanstown in west Dublin, according to the sources. That was an example of cohesion between Ministers and party members.
It was normal practice, in many cases, for party backbenchers to be informed of developments in their constituencies.
