If there’s one way to draw attention to something, it’s by going to the High Court to ban publication of it. Which brings us to another episode of “is this a new accountability low?”, in which the Government has decided to block the publication of a report relating to how it spends its taxpayers’ money.

You read that correctly: the Department of Sport is attempting to block the release into the public domain of an EY report entitled 2027 Ryder Cup Economic Impact Study – Final Report for Fáilte Ireland and the Department. This report investigates the economic impact of hosting the 2027 Ryder Cup at Adare Manor.

This seems like an awful lot of trouble for the Government to go to – unless, of course, the numbers were likely to prove deeply embarrassing.

While it’s not clear that we ever will see this report, there is enough information in the public domain to put together some informed, back-of-the-envelope calculations that can help us to imagine what may be contained within it – and what this means for how we should view the Government’s fiscal competence.

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What has the State said it will spend?

Let’s start with what we know the........

© The Irish Times