Kevin Cardiff remains the Government’s nominee for the €276,000-a-year post on the European Court of Auditors despite his rejection by MEPs yesterday, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste have insisted.
Mr Cardiff’s appointment to the Luxembourg-based court European Court of Auditors was rejected by a budgetary committee of the European Parliament yesterday. The development is seen as a setback for the Coalition.
Meanwhile, the incumbent Irish member of the court today admitted sending an e-mail lobbying against his proposed successor.
Eoin O’Shea sent the e-mail to the co-ordinators of the Socialist and European People’s Party groups on the budgetary committee, which rejected Mr Cardiff’s appointment by a single vote.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin today, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said Mr Cardiff’s rejection is not the end of the matter. “The rapporteur will issue her report shortly,” he said.
“Obviously the process is not complete yet and this is an issue for the entire European Parliament and not for a small group, committee or otherwise, within the parliament.”
Asked if he felt the episode was embarrassing for Ireland, Mr Kenny said he understood Mr Cardiff “performed very competently” at the hearing. “The result of the vote does not appear to reflect the quality of the performance at the hearing,” he said.
He later said declined to be drawn on Mr O'Shea's remarks, other than to say it was "not the Government's intention" to reappoint him to the role.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the “real endorsement hearing” will be a plenary session in the parliament set for December 12th. “So the Government continues to back Kevin Cardiff’s nomination.
“He’s a decent public servant with a long record and as a matter of fact I would suggest that he is more qualified for the position than any of his predecessors, most of whom were senior politicians.”
Mr Noonan also rejected the notion that Mr Cardiff had been “rejected”.
“He really hasn’t been rejected, because the rapporteur of the committee has already said, and she’s going to say again in her written report, that she feels that the vote wasn’t really reflective of what happened at the committee.”
Mr Cardiff told TV3 that yesterday’s questioning “was the strangest and most interesting” job interview he had ever done.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore said the Government was still backing Mr Cardiff. "All that happened yesterday was the first stage of a process which has quite some distance to go yet."
Mr Gilmore was responding in the Dáil today to questions from Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald and Independent Shane Ross who called for clarification of the Government’s position on the matter following the rejection of Mr Cardiff's nomination by a budgetary committee of the European Parliament.
Mr Gilmore insisted the Department of Finance secretary general had been nominated because he fitted the requirements of the post. It was the "most appropriate" appointment, he said.
Ms McDonald said the Government should not have proceeded with the nomination in the first place and should now withdraw it. “You should also realise that the days when Government removes officials, or rewards officials by automatically promoting them to top jobs in Europe, is a thing that needs to be left behind," she added.
Mr Ross said what happened was a "humiliation" for Mr Cardiff, for the Government and for Ireland. He asked how the Government could have nominated somebody who was the sole survivor of the “shameful night" of the bank guarantee.
Mr Gilmore said the civil service was independent and he respected it. He said he understood there had, by and large, been a positive reaction to Mr Cardiff at the budgetary committee hearing.
Mr Cardiff’s was the only nomination the committee rejected after it held confirmation hearings in Brussels yesterday with nominees from eight countries. Although his name will now go to a vote of the entire parliament next month, MEPs will have to reject the advice of their own committee if his nomination is to proceed.
Among those criticising his nomination were Labour MEPs Nessa Childers and Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly.
Speaking this morning, Ms Childers said Mr Cardiff should now withdraw his candidacy and she said she considered the rejection a "victory for democracy".
Fianna Fáil MEP Pat the Cope Gallagher said the result of yesterday’s vote was a “bad decision for Ireland.”
Mr Gallagher said he voted for Mr Cardiff on the “basis of the facts presented, not on the basis of confusion that has been created by MEPs from Ireland over the last number of weeks”.