It was wrong at the outset, it is wrong now and it will remain wrong, whatever way it is examined. Neither will it be forgotten, as some senior political figures cynically calculated when this debacle was in its early phases. But does it have to be so cringingly embarrassing for everyone right to the end as the Government persists in its nomination of Mr Hugh O'Flaherty to the position of vice-president of the European Investment Bank?
The management committee of the bank will meet again tomorrow and Wednesday to see whether a majority of its board of directors exists to ratify the Government's nomination of Mr O'Flaherty. The bank is stating openly that it is not in its interest to have "this situation continuing". The strong indications are that Mr O'Flaherty will continue to fail to receive sufficient votes to secure the position.
The ultimate responsibility for this fiasco rests, as it has always done from the date of the nomination in May, with the Taoiseach and the Tanaiste. No weaselly whispering campaign blaming Mr McCreevy, the nominating Minister, can avoid that fact, notwithstanding the Minister's direct hand in the matter and his blustering defence of the selection ever since.
The time for buck-passing is long past. Whatever the personal and political dynamics behind this decision, someone must administer the humane killer to it now. It is incumbent on the Government to act quickly and withdraw the nomination. Furthermore, it would be in its own interest to take "the hit" by apologising to the public, the EIB and the O'Flaherty family for embroiling them in this controversy.
The decision to nominate a former Supreme Court judge - against whom the Government threatened to initiate impeachment proceedings last year for actions damaging to the administration of justice - was a demarche which has been as puzzling as it has been shameful. It has taken the threat of an external intervention to administer the coup de grace. The democratic deficit in the European institutions compels member States to propose national nominees who are beyond reproach. The collective resignation of the Santer Commission made this requirement all the more imperative but the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and the Minister for Finance chose to ignore that reality.
The Government should now take the proper and responsible course of withdrawing Mr O'Flaherty's nomination. Better still, Mr O'Flaherty might reclaim a degree of public respect at this late stage by stepping out of the ring rather than waiting to be thrown out by the board of the bank. Sadly, the chosen option is to do nothing, to wait for the nomination procedure to take its inevitable course. If, as seems likely, Mr O'Flaherty's nomination is rejected as unsuitable by the EIB this week, the danger is that bruised egos in a fit of political pique may pass up on this opportunity for Ireland to hold the prestigious post of vice-president by not nominating an alternative candidate.
This issue has been a test of character for many individuals. They have been seen to fail abysmally. Let us hope, at this final hurdle, they do the right thing.