JAMES McDaid, aka the Minister for Fun because his portfolio is Tourism, Sport and Recreation, is again causing headaches for the Government. Last month there were convulsions in official circles over his remark about fly-bynight multinationals and about the management at Fruit of the Loom.
Now his decision to drop Bord Failte's abstract new logo in favour of an updated shamrock has caused deep upset in the North, and has been described as unilateral action by NIO minister Adam Ingram. The NI Tourist Board agreed the logo with Bord Failte as part of the new all-island, Tourism Brand Ireland and contributed £500,000 to the launch and campaign to market Ireland as a single destination. They are livid that the logo has been dropped without consultation.
Billy Hastings, one of the North's biggest hoteliers, said in a speech on Monday that TBI "was quite brilliant and a textbook example of cross-Border collaboration and marketing. I never liked the agreed shamrock logo but it was still a strong shared symbol. Now TBI will have two logos . . . This unilateral change without any reference to market research threatens not just this initiative but future cross-Border collaboration."
Moderate unionists, including John Taylor, who supported TBI are getting huge stick from the DUP and their allies for being so naive as to believe Dublin viewed them as equals.
In Dublin, civil servants who have worked so hard to foster North-South relations as part of the advancing peace process, and in particular get the unionists to agree with them, are furious that their work has been set back. One official was heard to say "Anything to do with the North is supposed to be cleared by the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern. This wasn't."