Lenihan yet to decide on new governor

FOUR WEEKS before Central Bank governor John Hurley retires from his post, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan is understood to be still considering a shortlist of candidates to succeed him.

Mr Hurley wrote to Mr Lenihan last June informing him that he would be stepping down as governor on Friday, September 25th.

He had agreed to stay on after his term of office ended in March due to the banking crisis.

Among the candidates thought to be in the running for the job are former Fine Gael finance minister Alan Dukes, who was appointed as one of the Government directors to Anglo Irish Bank last January.

Mr Dukes has experience in dealing with financial crises from his time as minister for finance in the mid-1980s when he spearheaded the government’s bailout of Allied Irish Bank by taking over its failed insurance subsidiary, ICI.

Prof Patrick Honohan of Trinity College Dublin, an expert on banking and global financial crises, is also believed to be among the candidates.

Department of Finance secretary general David Doyle and Kevin Cardiff, who has been heavily involved in Government measures to restore the banking system, are also both considered to be candidates for the job.

One of Mr Hurley’s most senior officials, Tony Grimes, director general at the Central Bank, may also be considered. Mr Grimes is due to take over as the new head of central banking and will report to the governor under the proposed new Central Bank of Ireland

The Minister told an Oireachtas committee last February that the Government would break from convention and extend its search for the next governor to include candidates from the private sector.

However, no decision has been made and the Minister may yet choose a senior civil servant, a tradition that has been followed since the bank was established in 1943.

Addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance and the Public Sector in February, Mr Lenihan said that he had “an open mind” on Mr Hurley’s successor.

“The traditional practice whereby it is axiomatic that a senior public servant should be appointed as governor of the Central bank will not be followed by me,” he said.

The Government plans to re-merge the Central Bank and the Financial Regulator under the authority of the governor as head of the new Central Bank of Ireland Commission when the regulatory reforms come into effect.