Since the three largest parties in the Dáil are pushing for the appointment of Kevin Cardiff to the European Court of Auditors, there is a good chance he will be appointed in the coming weeks.
But whether or not this happens, the shenanigans surrounding the episode has extinguished any hope that Irish politics could be reformed, or that there was a seed within it that could ensure it would become something Ireland could be proud of.
The sending of a senior Department of Finance official involved in the sad decisions surrounding the banking crisis to a well paid EU job is just one element. Painting it as part of Ireland’s effort for greater engagement with the EU is another.
The aggressive efforts to shut down any criticism by elected politicians or any debate over the government’s nominee has been startling. The argument was that it would prevent Mr Cardiff getting a fair hearing from the EU Budgetary Control Committee that is charged with making a recommendation to the EP.
At the same time the government lobbied senior members of the same Committee to support their nominee while Mr Cardiff met the leaders of Fine Gael and Labour’s MEPs and the Taoiseach spoke to the head of the European People’s Party in the EP.
The bully efforts backfired at the committee itself when MEPs tasked with getting their man through misread the signs and refused to postpone the final decision on Mr Cardiff. The request was made by people who said they were impressed by him but required their concerns to be further allayed. They seemed slightly perplexed by this “you are either with us or against us” approach.
There was even an attempt to disenfranchise the members of the public who raised the issue of Mr Cardiff’s nomination. MEPs received emails from constituents following the Public Accounts Committee hearing where Mr Cardiff shot into the public consciousness, but MEPs reflecting these concerns publicly were told they were not toeing the party line and bluntly told to shut up.
The emails from the current Irish Auditor, Eoin O’Shea to two important members of the Budgetary Control Committee reference to his successors role in the crisis have a greater significance given his position.
He was filleted by the joint committee on European Union Affairs. They argued that “as a consequence of this type of flippant communication, that the important work we have to do to restore our economic credibility and fortunes as a consequence of the problems we face will be undermined”.
This was the day after Mr Cardiff’s hearing when he told the MEPs about “massive mistakes” he made and weeks after TDs attacked him over the €3.6bn debt registered twice.
Mr Cardiff had raised all the issues himself in the resume provided to the committee members and made public weeks before the hearing when he referred to his involvement with the crisis, the banks, the supervision, the tax - all the issues the EU is well aware of in relation to the country’s now sorry state.
Restoring Ireland’s credibility with the EU will continue this week with massive political capital being spent to ensure an honourable person who has worked for 27 years in the public service gets the support of the European Parliament for the job.
The EU is being treated to politics Irish style, scapegoats, shooting the messengers, ignoring peoples’ concerns, ethics as the domain of the naive, loyalty to party diktat. Now apparently the EU Affairs Committee sees its role as ensuring that “all people who represent this country at a European level recognise the importance of ensuring that Ireland adopts a cohesive approach to the issues facing it”.
It would be nice if the Oireachtas committee so concerned about the country’s credibility in the EU vetted potential nominees in future before sending them off to the EU. It would be even better if there was a transparent and merit based selection system.