Milner is a good player, he was good at Toon, enough to command a 12m price. He stepped up from U21 to full Eng squad and wasn't phased by it. Good addition to our squad. 24m seems bit hyped, but that depends basically on who else is prepared to pay good money for him.
In regards to what this could mean for Ireland, i dont see that it means we would sell Stevie. IF we get CL we will need a squad that can field two effective players in every position. Steven Ireland should be given another season to prove himself in this squad, but without much cover in case he doesn't we need a couple of attack capable mids. While on the subject we also need another option for Tevez in case he cant play or we want to adopt a different approach.