It has been a week for long-running sagas drawing to an end. TV3 announced yesterday it would come on air on September 24th and earlier this week the Minister for Tourism, Mr McDaid, announced that Treasury Holdings would be recommended to Government as the builder of the National Convention Centre.

The convention centre decision clearly moves Treasury, already one of Ireland's most successful property developers, into another league. The size of the project is illustrated by the interest of the giant GE Capital in providing financing, which would run to £700 million or more over ten years. Much complex deal-making lies ahead for the developers if the project is to succeed.

However another group who will be delighted with the decision is the Dublin Docklands Development Authority. The decision to locate the centre in the middle of its development area will make the DDA's task of development the area much easier in a whole host of ways. It will create a major business development on the North Wall Quay which as well as its direct benefits in terms of jobs - in construction initially and later in the centre itself - will also make it much easier to attract other investors to the area for both residential and commercial developments.

With the IFSC at one end of the quays, the new centre in the middle and the Point Depot at the other end, the potential for revolutionising the area is obvious.