EU Commissioner David Byrne has little luck with cars. Earlier this year, his Merc was stolen in Brussels, and is now doubtless of use to the Russian mafia. Last week, his official car travelling in a massive cavalcade through Warsaw braked suddenly, and the car behind - containing the Polish Minister for Agriculture - ran into it. A pile-up was avoided and Byrne was unhurt but his passenger, EU bureaucrat Dius Lennon, suffered a broken thumb.
Despite his hectic schedule, the Commissioner was in Dublin for a couple of hours this week to see his son, Rory, graduate with a B.A. from UCD. After Poland, it was Brussels on Monday and Luxembourg that evening; on Tuesday and Wednesday, it was the parliament in Strasbourg; Dublin was Thursday morning and that night he flew out for enlargement meetings in Hungary.