Kenny: Error shouldn’t cost him job

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny has said the €3.6 billion accounting error which tripped up Kevin Cardiff’s bid to sit on the European Court of Auditors should not be enough to prevent him taking the job.

And, furthermore, he said the fact Mr Cardiff was part of the monitoring regime for the financial sector as it collapsed was not something which should affect his prospects.

Mr Kenny said similar auditing mistakes to the €3.6bn blot regarding the Housing Finance Agency have been made elsewhere in Europe and Mr Cardiff, the outgoing secretary general of the Department of Finance, remained the most qualified person for the Court of Auditors job.

The Taoiseach believed Mr Cardiff performed better than reported in front of the MEPs who rejected his nomination on Wednesday and he deserved to have his name put before the full European Parliament.

“This is not the first occasion where double accounting took place in audits, not just in Ireland but abroad.

“And in this case, Mr Cardiff, it is my understanding, performed very well at the hearings, and I understand that the comments afterwards were that the vote did not reflect the quality of those hearings,” he said.

In respect of Mr Cardiff’s former role as head of the department’s oversight operation for the financial sector, he said the mistakes were at a ministerial level and not because of the failure of senior civil servants.

“I need to make it very clear here, politics is separate from the advice given by civil servants. At the end of the day politicians may well be advised and given options by the public service but it is the political process that makes the decisions.

“In other words ministers have to sign off on options given to them by the civil service,” he said.

The Taoiseach was asked how he and the Government could argue Mr Cardiff was picked because he was the most qualified when, during the Programme for Government negotiations, the coalition partners signalled a desire to wipe the slate clean at the top of the Department of Finance.

But Mr Kenny said Mr Cardiff remained the nominee and was the best candidate Ireland could put forward for the €180,000-a-year post.

“If the Government had decided to nominate a former politician here you would have a different kind of story. Kevin Cardiff has outstanding qualifications in terms of this particular job, but it is a matter for the European Parliament,”

Mr Kenny was in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork for the official launch of the Irish Maritime Energy Resource Cluster at the National Maritime College of Ireland.

He committed the Government to supporting the collaborative project of UCC, Cork Institute of Technology and the Irish Naval Service.