Spitfire,
Not wanting to get in the middle of a Kiwi and a Cloggie fight it out but he's actually correct about the Ryanair thing.
A couple of mates of mine are contract training captains at Ryanair and they've both talked about US and Brazilian pilots working there on Irish work permits and Irish CAA validations. All done through Brookfield, not Ryanair. They were supposedly given 12 months to get the JAA license but somehow managed to be there 3 years later on the same validation. Not sure how they do it but it has been done in the past, not that they've done it for about 12 months now. And they're less likely to do it in the future now they're parking planes.
PS. Any chance you know a particularly obnoxious Brit on the classic with you guys, with the initials CB?