Senior representatives of Scotland's bid to host the European Championships in 2008 will travel to Dublin on Monday in the hope of assessing once and for all whether a joint bid with the Republic is an idea worth pursuing.

Having received assurances two months ago from Government figures "of the highest level" that any public support required for the Irish to be part of the bid would be forthcoming the aim now is to go over the detail of what would be involved.

Simon Lyons, a senior member of the team handling the bid on behalf of the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Executive, says that he and his colleagues want to gauge the extent of the "hunger" here to be part of the bid ahead of February's deadline for Scotland to decide whether to go it alone or not.

"There are a lot of positive aspects to a joint bid and the cultural links between the two countries make the prospect attractive," says Lyons, "but at the moment we are keeping our options open and the intention next week is to see what it is that the Irish bring to the table."

What the Scots need is stadiums as so far they only have four - Glasgow's three plus Murrayfield in Edinburgh - and it is understood that on their previous visits they were assured that the Government here would provide guarantees regarding the availability of two all-seated venues with capacities of at least 30,000 that would meet all international standards.

Croke Park is one of the venues being mentioned, with the hope being that, given the substantial tourism benefits that might accrue from hosting such a high-profile international sporting event, the GAA could be persuaded to make an exception to their rules prohibiting the use of the organisation's grounds for other sports.

"I think the hope is," says Lyons, "that they might ring-fence the event because of its significance in much the same way as they have done with the Special Olympics."

The Scots estimate that around £500 million could be generated by the Championships for the British economy, with £50 million in additional tax revenues.

"Another attraction is the fact that 3,000 (members of the) media end up spending several weeks in your country, and the hope is that they spend at least some of that time telling the world about what a wonderful place it is," says Lyons.

Under the proposals being considered Ireland would stage one of the competition's four group matches and, probably, one or two games from the knockout stages. The Scots may, however, seek a contribution towards the substantial cost of producing a bid and it is not clear whether the FAI would be interested in putting much money up in advance.

The greater problem, though, is the question of venues with Lyons saying that legally binding guarantees would have to be provided that the stadiums will be in place. It is one of the issues he hopes to clarify over the coming days.

Whatever happens next week, no decision is likely to be made by the Scots on how to proceed until after Christmas, when they are likely to weigh up the pros and cons of alternative bids.

Russia and Hungary have separate bids and there are likely to be joint bids involving Scandinavian countries, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, Austria and Switzerland, and Turkey and Greece.