Hug really just recognized very young into the inception of MLPs the favorable characteristics of the asset class: Highcurrent income, growing distributions, tax-advantaged income, and low correlation to broader asset classes.
Ireland has been running a small current-account surplus and deficits have generally fallen (though they remain veryhigh in Cyprus and Greece) but they would be far worse if the peripheral economies were not so depressed, which has slashed demand for imports.