EU COMMISSION: Ireland's incoming European Commissioner, Mr Charlie McCreevy, has appointed four Irish officials to his seven-person cabinet. The appointments include a business journalist, a Brussels-based lawyer and a former member of the Irish diplomatic team that negotiated the EU's constitutional treaty.
Each commissioner typically has a cabinet, a team of officials that provides assistance to carry out their official duties.
Mr McCreevy announced last month that his chef de cabinet will be Mr Martin Power, one of the most experienced Irish officials in Brussels. Mr Power has worked in the Commission for more than 20 years and is currently chef de cabinet to Ireland's outgoing Commissioner, Mr David Byrne.
The other three Irish appointees announced yesterday are Mr Michael Murray, Ms Helen Blake and Mr Shane Sutherland.
Mr Murray, who is markets editor of the Sunday Business Post newspaper, worked in the banking and financial services sector in London and Dublin until 2000 before joining the weekly.
Ms Blake was part of a small team at the Department of Foreign Affairs that co-ordinated Ireland's participation in the Convention on the Future of Europe and in the negotiations leading to the EU's constitutional treaty.
Mr Sutherland is a solicitor at the Brussels office of Linklaters, a large law firm, who has experience of competition and state aid issues. His father is the former attorney general and EU Commissioner, Mr Peter Sutherland.
Mr McCreevy's deputy chef de cabinet will be Ms Claire Bury, a former British diplomat who currently occupies the same position in the cabinet of Mr Frits Bolkestein, Mr McCreevy's predecessor as internal market commissioner.
The other cabinet members are Mr Martin Merlin, a former French Treasury official, and Mr Peter Kerstens, a Dutch official who is also a member of Mr Byrne's cabinet.