While the U.S. government has been staging yet another of its periodic demonstrations of how not to do things, the government of the Republic of Ireland has done the opposite, executing the repeal of a travel tax.
One short but beautiful sentence in the finance ministry's budget summary says it all: "The Air Travel Tax is being reduced to zero with effect from 1 April 2014."
The 3 euro levy is hardly Europe's most burdensome travel tax. That honor still goes to the U.K.'s vile Air Passenger Duty. Still, taking any travel tax to zero is a bold move in an era when taxes in general, and travel taxes in particular, all seem to have one-way tickets to Up.
Ireland's budget airline Ryanair wasted no time in responding to the news with a promise to boost its traffic at Irish airports by at least 1 million passengers a year, and it promptly invited Irish airport managers to begin meetings about its growth plans.
Commenting on the Ryanair move, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said it was a "really positive development." He said, "Creating the right conditions for job creation was a key priority in Budget 2014, and this announcement will be another significant boost for the tourism industry next year."
Maybe it's the advantage of having a small country, but we can't escape the feeling that the Irish have made it look easy.
Can it really be that easy?