Brexit Report

 From our Dublin correspondent:
   
   Today the UK government formally filed the Brexit papers to leave the European Union.
   As a nearby observer I don't think the British ever really liked the idea of getting involved in any process where they do not have absolute control.
   One of the programs of the EU is to support the development of local or national critical infrastructure projects.
   Every member of the EU contributes to the fund and payments are made from that fund to help finance local projects. The idea is that poorer countries will benefit and raise the overall EU standard. Every EU member country gets something, but the poorer members get more proportionally than the wealthier members.
   For a while Ireland got more in payments than it paid in. That, however, has changed and Ireland now pays more annually than it receives. The money is often used to pay for hospitals, road improvements, railway improvements, sea port improvements, etc.
   There is a condition that a sign must be put up saying the work is partly funded by the EU, but these signs rarely went up in the UK.
   I think the politicians wanted to say new hospitals or roads or whatever were going up but taxes weren't. A few years ago the EU told the UK to put the signage up or be fined.
   The UK politicians chose to pay the fines but then complained to their electorate that the EU were taking money that should be used in Britain for hospitals or roads or whatever.
   A few years ago I had an English business visitor here in Dublin and he was amazed at the number of signs around proclaiming EU support for one thing or another. He told me that the Irish really knew how to milk the EU cash cow.
   He seemed unaware of the aid the British received for their projects.