There are times in political life which require independent and courageous leadership necessitating direct confrontation with public opinion. These include Mr Charlie McCreevy's challenge to Mr Charles Haughey's leadership in the early 1980s, Mr Desmond O'Malley's relentless pursuit of matters arising in the Beef Tribunal and Mr Albert Reynolds's decision to take a giant leap of faith in the peace process in the early 1990s. The appointment of Mr Hugh O'Flaherty to the position of vice-president of the European Investment Bank is not one of them.
The issue is not about the money or the pension. It is not about qualifications for the job. It is not even about looking after a pal who has been hard done by. The fundamental issue, at a time when the level of confidence in public life could not be lower, is whether the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and the Minister for Finance failed to appreciate the wider and deeper realities or - more seriously - did see them and were indifferent to the consequences.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, was contemptuous of the Dail in his explanation for his decision to recommend Mr O'Flaherty for the post on Tuesday night. He devoted most of his speech to a definition of the functions of the European Investment Bank and the membership of its board. In a mere six paragraphs in his six-page script, Mr McCreevy sought to re-cast the findings of the Chief Justice's inquiry into the Philip Sheedy case. His conclusion was that Mr O'Flaherty's mistake "was that he had not anticipated the construction that could be put on what he did. For that mistake, he paid a very high price".
But, if Mr McCreevy, as the nominating Minister, displayed a customary arrogance towards his critics, the Progressive Democrats have behaved just as badly - given the standards which they have staked out for themselves. The Tanaiste, Ms Harney, accepted in an RTE interview yesterday that it "may have been a mistake" not to envisage "the sense of public outrage". But she did not think it would have been reasonable for her, taking into account all the circumstances, to have vetoed that appointment. If she had the choice again, she said, she would make the same decision.
In his only intervention in the current controversy, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, opined that Mr O'Flaherty's qualifications for nomination to the European Investment Bank were "superb". The past was the past.
Clearly Government leaders have learned little from the series of scandals which are contaminating all levels of public life. The latest instalment from the Moriarty Tribunal reveals that Mr Charles Haughey received £8.5 million in payments in the years since he became leader of Fianna Fail in 1979. To dismiss the concerns arising from Mr O'Flaherty's appointment in the last few days, in the context of the poor perception of public life, is at best disappointing, at worst frightening.
The appointment of a former judge, whom the same Fianna Fail/PD Government moved to impeach for actions damaging to the administration of justice only a year ago, has caused public offence all round. It was a shabby, hole-in-the-wall decision by a small, but influential, coterie of people in public life, both inside Government and outside it. And they know it. There is still time, before the ratification date of June 5th, to do the right thing.