McCreevy says economic policies will not change

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, is confident that the Government's economic policies will not change after he departs for Brussels to become the Republic's next EU Commissioner.

Mr McCreevy said the Government's prudent economic strategy had "worked very well" for the Republic.

"In the name of God, no sensible, sane person would throw it out," he said.

Mr McCreevy dismissed the idea that the next Minister for Finance might dramatically loosen the Exchequer's purse strings with an eye on the 2007 General Election.

"I would find it inconceivable that a model we have found to our advantage would be thrown out," he said. "I would be very confident that there will be no major changes in economic policies here."

In ebullient form as he addressed the media in Dublin, Mr McCreevy scotched suggestions that he was being pushed out of the Cabinet. He described approaching the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, about his exit from domestic politics at the end of September last year.

"It has always been a big ambition of mine to pick the right time to get out," he said, adding that he had never expected his career in the Dáil to last 27 years.

He said he had been "thinking about what he was going to do for the future" and had asked the Taoiseach if the post of the Republic's European Commissioner might be open to him. He was at pains to emphasise the "close personal relationship" that exists between himself and the Taoiseach.

"I'd say I know about 25 per cent of Bertie Ahern but that's about 24 per cent more than anybody else knows," he joked.

The two have "shot the breeze" on the matter of their lifestyles on numerous occasions over a long period, he added. In the months that followed the initial chat, Mr McCreevy "oscillated" in his views about a move. This came to a head on Tuesday of last week when Mr Ahern formally offered the position as Irish Commissioner.

"He gave me the offer. He wasn't going to offer it to anybody else." Mr McCreevy went back to the Taoiseach with a positive reply yesterday, having been told to take as long as he wanted to consider the matter.

The Minister said he was hopeful of being awarded a "significant portfolio" within the Commission but added that he was "looking forward whatever the job is going to be".

The Taoiseach is expected to urge the incoming European Commission president, Mr José Manuel Durao Barroso, to consider Mr McCreevy for an economic position. Mr McCreevy declined to speculate on who might replace him as Minister for Finance in the autumn reshuffle. He said Fianna Fáil would be able to find "plenty of good candidates" to run for his seat in Kildare North, but acknowledged it is rare for Government party candidates to win bye-elections.

The Minister went on to reject the notion that the Government's decentralisation policies had been his alone.

"I was pressurised and pulverised by my Cabinet colleagues for four years to move with the decentralisation programme, particularly by members of various parties of Government," he said.

He said he had told these colleagues last September that he would introduce decentralisation in the Budget, but only if the policy was not leaked into the public domain in advance.

"Nobody knew the full picture bar myself, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. That was very important because if it had got out in the few days beforehand, I can imagine what the system would have done to it," he said.