Compensation of £200,000 (€254,000) lost through the postponement of this year's Ryder Cup matches was being sought yesterday by Bord Fβilte in discussions with officials of the PGA European Tour. The Dublin talks also involved an extension of Ireland's promotional involvement to cover 2006.

Bord Fβilte's primary concern, however, was to find a suitable replacement for Aer Lingus, which withdrew on November 9th as one of the four corporate sponsors of the Ryder Cup. The airline said at the time that their decision was inescapable, given that one third of their work-force were being made redundant.

"We have an interested client, but we must establish that the replacement will be acceptable to the Tour and the other main sponsors," said Chris Kane, director of corporate relations for Bord Fβilte.

When, in 1997, Ireland secured a deal to stage the Ryder Cup in 2005, it meant paying the European Tour about £7.25 million over eight years. This money was guaranteed by the Government, but Bord Fβilte then negotiated a separate deal whereby 50 per cent of their outlay would be underwritten by three commercial partners: Allied Irish Bank, Aer Lingus and Waterford Crystal.

This meant each company coming up with eight payments of £1.2 million each, so the withdrawal of Aer Lingus, halfway through the process, created a shortfall of £600,000. In choosing a replacement sponsor, Bord Fβilte will have to be careful that their new partner doesn't create any commercial conflict with the original companies, including Aer Lingus.

But there is another problem. Aer Lingus also ended their annual sponsorship of £50,000 to the European Open, most of which was in the form of flight tickets. So, the European Tour are anxious to cover this potential loss for future stagings, possibly through additional support from the Jefferson Smurfit Group, which may end up playing for flights that were hitherto provided free.

The Tour's representatives, including Ryder Cup director Richard Hills, were then quizzed on the matter of insurance compensation for losses incurred when it became necessary to postpone last September's Ryder Cup for 12 months.

"We had already paid for a large pavilion at The Belfry, quite apart from producing promotional videos and banners for the occasion," said Kane.

When the events of September 11th caused a re-scheduling of Ryder Cup stagings, it was indicated the European Tour would be seeking about £2.5 million sterling in insurance compensation. But I understand that the overall insurance bill could be as high as £7 million. In that context, Bord Fβilte's share would be quite modest.

Meanwhile, the re-scheduling of Ireland's staging of the biennial event to 2006 at the K Club effectively gives Bord Fβilte an additional year of promotional opportunities. Since their original deal was for eight years, however, this would mean a formal extension of that arrangement.

"The original agreement was that we would bring the Ryder Cup to Ireland, with all the promotional activity this entailed," said Kane. "Against that background, we would hope to have an involvement in 15 tournaments during the 2006 season, just as we will have over the next four years."

It will be recalled that Ireland's staging of the Ryder Cup was formally announced by the Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, immediately prior to the 1997 event at Valderrama, where Europe repeated their triumph of two years previously, at Oak Hill.

Yesterday's meeting followed on a similar get-together the previous Monday when Kane travelled to the Tour's headquarters at Wentworth, Surrey.

It is hoped that most of these matters, notably the insurance deal, will be sorted out early in the New Year.