THE contrast could not have been greater.

Former Green Senator Deirdre de Burca has claimed the Greens only agreed to support Maire Geoghegan Quinn as Ireland's EU Commissioner in return for Miss de Burca getting a job in the Commissioner's cabinet.

Green Party deputy leader Mary White has described as "deplorable" the behaviour of Deirdre de Burca, who resigned this week from the Senate and from the party saying she believed it had become an extension of Fianna Fail.

IRELAND’S new and first women European Commissioner, Máire Geoghegan Quinn, got the Research, Innovation and Science portfolio the Government has lobbied for over the past few months.

Ireland has secured the Research and Innovation portfolio in the European Commission.

Speculation is mounting about the job that lies ahead for Maire Geoghegan Quinn, after she was named Ireland's nominee for the European Commission.

MÁIRE Geoghegan Quinn recently commented that when her current term in the European Court of Auditors ran out in 2012, she would “return to Galway to put my feet up and write a book”.

Former minister Máire Geoghegan-Quinn is the Government's nominated candidate for the post of Ireland's next EU Commissioner, it was confirmed today.

THE cabinet is expected to discuss Ireland’s next European Commissioner at their meeting tomorrow, while in Brussels the battle for Europe’s top jobs hots up.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen will be under pressure to nominate the next Irish Commissioner over the next 10 days.

AUDITORS reporting on the EU’s accounts for its €114 billion budget warned they are unhappy about €7bn paid out for rural development and to help poorer regions.

SEAN DOHERTY’s wife had a major role in his decision to drop the bombshell that Charles Haughey was fully aware that journalists’ telephones were tapped in the early 1980s, former government minister Máire Geoghegan Quinn has disclosed.

IRELAND received over twice the amount of money it paid to the EU last year despite being one of the wealthiest countries in the union.