THE GOVERNMENT will today consider the rejection of its nominee to the European Court of Auditors by a budgetary committee of the European Parliament. The development is seen as a major setback for the Coalition.
Opposition politicians have described as “embarrassing” the failure of Department of Finance secretary general Kevin Cardiff to secure the support of the committee for the €276,000-a-year job.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny said last night the Coalition had not yet had time to reflect on the development. “Now the Government has not had time to consider the result and we will do so tomorrow,” he said.
Mr Cardiff’s was the only nomination the committee rejected after it held confirmation hearings 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.
Mr Cardiff’s future is now uncertain. His job at the Department of Finance has already been advertised and the closing date for applications is tomorrow. Speculation in political circles is that he is unlikely to return to finance.
The Taoiseach is known to have personally urged Joseph Daul, the parliamentary leader of the European People’s Party (EPP), to ensure MEPs attached to Fine Gael’s affiliate in Europe backed Mr Cardiff. However, MEPs voted by 12 to 11 to reject Mr Cardiff’s nomination.
Asked about reports that he had told the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting that he might push for a full European Parliament vote on Mr Cardiff’s nomination, Mr Kenny said last night: “No, what I’m saying to you is the Government have not had time to reflect on the decision of the members of the budgetary committee who actually voted and we will do so tomorrow.”
Before yesterday’s budget control committee meeting, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said: “Of all the people that were nominated to serve on the European Court of Auditors by Irish governments over the years, Kevin Cardiff is the most qualified technically for the job.
Some of the most pointed questioning of Mr Cardiff in Brussels came from EPP members. Ingeborg Grässle, a German Christian Democrat, said she had received numerous e-mails about Mr Cardiff and said that the financial crisis had exposed an “organisational” failure within the Department of Finance.
“You are a very important candidate because all of the euro countries are now basically under the rescue or the bailout umbrella and we are very interested in the errors which were made in the Irish case,” she said.
Jean-Pierre Audy, a French member of the EPP group, told the hearing that he too had received e-mails and had some difficulty developing a “clear image” of Mr Cardiff. “What I could not accept, I’m not saying that this is the case yet, would be us being misled or led into error. We need to know exactly who we are talking to.”
Mr Cardiff, who ran banking policy at the time of the State guarantee, defended that intervention and said the Government would not have nominated him if it believed he would not serve the State well. “I have no sense of having let anybody down at any stage because I’ve always done my best,” he said.
“Certainly I can say the people who have had the opportunity to assess me have generally assessed me positively,” he said. “That’s not to say I haven’t made enormous mistakes. In the middle of a crisis, you make very big mistakes and you make very big gains sometimes.”
The hearing came in the wake of criticism within political circles of Mr Cardiff’s nomination after it emerged that his department had mistakenly ovestated the national debt by €3.6 billion.
Among those criticising his nomination were Labour MEPs Nessa Childers and Fine Gael MEP Seán Kelly.
Tension was palpable last evening among Irish MEPs as word of the vote emerged. “A major contributory factor raised in this decision has been the negative vibes that were sent out by fellow Irish MEPs,” said Fine Gael MEP Jim Higgins.
Ms Childers dismissed this as speculation and said the result surprised her. “I consider it to be a victory for European democracy and for MEPs and the parliament, in terms of the separation of mandates between national governments and European parliamentarians,” she said.
Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa said the head of the committee – who will send a report to the European Parliament ahead of a final vote in December – would still be recommending Mr Cardiff’s appointment.
“She has informed me that she will be recommending acceptance of his nomination and that she regards the vote as not an accurate reflection of the hearing itself,” he said.
There are no Irish MEPs on the budgetary committee but Pat the Cope Gallagher of Fianna Fáil and Independent Marian Harkin took the place of two Liberal group members and voted for Mr Cardiff.
The parliament’s vote next month is not binding but Mr Cardiff told the committee he would withdraw his name if the vote was negative.