Tanaiste Mary Harney and Minister for Finance Charlie McCreevy were in Brussels recently persuading Karel van Miert to let us retain our corporation tax. So anxious were they to keep van Miert on side that McCreevy invited the EU competition commissioner to Dublin for the home leg of the two World Cup play-off matches against Belgium on Wednesday.
Van Miert is a Belgian and a soccer fan. Surely in the national interest we must lose the match.
