Not unexpectedly, the Government's clumsy and ill-conceived exercise in supposed "regionalisation" has hit the buffers in Brussels. Eurostat, the European statistical agency, is not convinced that Counties Kerry and Clare should be eligible for the maximum level of EU funding. Critically, Eurostat is also sceptical about the Government's commitment to fully-fledged regional power. It has not been convinced by the Government's new-found commitment to regionalisation. Eurostat sees the new regional structures for what they are: a token effort inspired centrally by the need to optimise receipts from EU structural funds.
The Government insists that a battle has been lost but the war has still to be fought; it is now seeking clarification at official level and insists - none too convincingly - that the regional plan will not be modified or resubmitted. For all this brave talk, there is the definite sense that the Government has burnt bridges in Brussels. And the timing could scarcely be worse. On the eve of a critical one-day summit on the future shape of EU structural and farm funding in Bonn, the Government is engaged in a rearguard action with Brussels.
In truth, the Government has only itself to blame. For a decade and more, the Commission has championed an approach whereby the allocation and distribution of EU structural funds is channelled through proper regional structures. In recent years, the EU Regional Affairs Commissioner, Ms Monika Wulf-Mathies, has underlined how any new regional structures must reflect "a distinct administrative reality".
The Government responded to this with a minimalist approach to regionalisation drawn up by the Department of Finance, which yields little substantial power to the regions. There are few signs of any wider Government commitment to devolution or decentralisation. And the eleventh-hour decision to include Kerry and Clare within the Objective 1 group (which would be entitled to maximum EU support) was an old-fashioned and poorly-judged exercise in political opportunism.
The whole sorry episode is a further reminder of how Ireland's relationship with Brussels is now entering its most challenging period and how the political system is struggling to keep pace. Since it became clear that all of this State would no longer qualify for Objective 1 status, successive governments have been casting around for a coherent policy. In an address on EU issues earlier this week, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said that Ireland would be asking our partners in the forthcoming budgetary negotiations to "look beyond the recent statistics on Irish economic performance and to recognise our need for consolidation of our recent achievements in order to complete the catching-up process".
With this State requiring an estimated £80 billion in infrastructural investment, it is a fair and legitimate point. But the question might be asked why the issue of Ireland's acute infrastructural needs is only being raised as negotiations on EU funds move into their final phase? As it is, Mr Ahern travels to Bonn with our EU partners under the impression that we are ready to accept very significant cutbacks in structural and, indeed, CAP funding. All Irish citizens will wish the Taoiseach well in his endeavours. But the Government has not helped its own case.