A SLIGHTLY surreal air now surrounds the proposal that Ireland should host the opening stages of the 1998 Tour de France.
The Minister for Tourism and Trade, Mr Kenny, said the stage should begin in Killala "where the last French invasion took place" continue down to his home town of Castlebar and "after that I don't much care where it goes".
Mr Kenny was probably joking but one can never underestimate the ambitions of local TDs to bring fame to their constituencies and it is Mr Kenny who must ultimately find the £2 million necessary to play host to one of the world's most colourful sporting events.
His colleagues in Government, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, and the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, are being furiously lobbied to bring the race to Wexford to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the 1798 uprising.
But the French landed in Killala, got no further than Ballinamuck, Co Roscommon, and never set foot in Wexford. Moreover, even the Wexford promoters admit that Europe's best professional cyclists, used to racing over the Alps and the Pyrenees under a hot sun, could not ascend the modest slopes of Vinegar Hill pre-eminent symbol of the 1798 uprising as there is no road.
Then there is the question of accommodation. Mr David Metcalfe, editor of the Enniscorthy Guardian, said they had been told by the promoters that the Tour de France party would require two passenger ferries, a freighter and 3,500 rooms a tall order in July, the height of the tourist season.
"We'd get no extra visitors, simply displace existing ones," said one tourist source in the south east.
Mr Kenny yesterday met some of the main backers of the proposal to bring the race here Mr Pat McQuaid, president of the Federation of Irish Cyclists, Tour de France hero Stephen Roche and Mr Alan Rushton, the managing director of Sports for Television.
Afterwards, Mr Kenny said he would like to see the great race come to Ireland but the financial assistance involved was beyond his Department's resources. He would now talk to other Departments and State agencies to see if the money could be found.
The Irish bid is under pressure from two European cities, Liege and Turin. However, Mr McQuaid said yesterday that Ireland's bid still had priority as it was first in the field.
"I think Pat (McQuaid) knew he wasn't going to walk out of the Minister's room yesterday with the money in his back pocket", said Mr Paul Nolan, a member of the Slaney Cycling Club.