Dublin worried by threat to Blair

Pat Leahy has the lowdown on the reaction to Blair’s problems across the Irish Sea.

Government sources in Dublin confessed that Brown was something of an unknown quantity, although no one who spoke to The Sunday Business Post expected him to show the same interest in Northern Ireland as Blair has.

In particular, sources pointed to the influence of Jonathan Powell, a key member of Blair’s Downing Street staff who has been intimately involved with the Northern issue since 1997, and said he is unlikely to stay after Blair’s departure.

Others suggested that a more perfunctory approach to the Northern parties from a Brown administration might actually lead to progress. The sources said that Brown, having been Chancellor of the Exchequer, would be more aware than most of the enormous revenue transfers to the North and the extent to which it depended on the public sector. (Sunday Business Post.)

If that is indeed the Brown approach, its probably fair to say its already in evidence under Peter Hain.