Offer was a mistake, McCreevy tells TV3

The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said last night in a TV3 interview that the nomination of the former Supreme Court judge, Mr Hugh O'Flaherty, to the European Investment Bank had been "a mistake".

Mr McCreevy last week told journalists in a private briefing that the Cabinet had erred in pushing for Mr O'Flaherty's appointment.

In the TV3 interview, his first public comment to camera on the controversy, Mr McCreevy said the Government had been "damaged" by the affair.

"The controversy over the nomination of Mr Hugh O'Flaherty has been damaging to a lot of people. It has been very traumatic and it has generated an awful lot of headlines. Not all decisions that governments make are universally popular. We intend to move on. It was a mistake."

Public disquiet over the nomination had been overplayed by the media, he suggested.

"I don't think that the trouble over the nomination to the European Investment Bank impinges as much on people's lives as other things."

The Minister denied discussing the EIB nomination with Fine Gael Dublin Central TD Mr Jim Mitchell.

"I haven't spoken to Deputy Mitchell in the very recent past at all," he said.

The Minister made his comments ahead of a function at Kildare County Council offices in Naas.