Roche signals interest in EU commissioner post

EUROPE Minister Dick Roche has become the first member of Government to express an interest in the job as Ireland’s European Commissioner, saying he would like to take up the position when Charlie McCreevy’s term ends next month.

Mr Roche said he would like Taoiseach Brian Cowen to nominate him for the job, having spent his adult life working with the EU, but added: “I would not bet on getting it.” Mr Roche made the comments yesterday as he gave his response to claims by the anti-Lisbon campaigner Declan Ganley that the treaty would be bad for jobs and “catastrophic” for the Irish economy. “The only job that would be saved by the Lisbon Treaty would be Brian Cowen’s job,” Mr Ganley said.

The businessman claimed the treaty would give the EU competence over economic policy and that “tax harmonisation, if we vote yes, will be right back on the agenda”.