As the Public Offices Commission tries to reach a definition on what exactly a friend is, it should perhaps remember what happened to the 1994 EU attempt to define a family.
The POC - John Purcell (Comptroller and Auditor General), Kieran Coughlan (Clerk of the Dail), Seamus Pattison TD (Ceann Comhairle), Kevin Murphy (Ombudsman) and Deirdre Lane (Clerk of the Seanad) - in its annual report last month states there is a "difficulty in attempting to construct a definition of what constitutes a friend. It may be that a solution will have to be found by setting out, in legislation, parameters within which a claim to friendship will have to be supported by the person who is relying on the existence of a friendship."
In 1994, the German minister for family affairs Claudia Nolte convened a council of fellow social affairs ministers to improve the lot of the family. First item on the agenda was the definition of a family. After two days of deliberation the best the council could come up with was "a household containing a child". Objections were raised that this excluded childless couples. So they threw their hat at it in the end.
The POC says in its report that defining a relative is a straightforward matter. Now Quidnunc awaits its definition of a friend.