Fianna Fáil sees top European jobs as gifts for party faithful

IRELAND twice lost the opportunity to have an Irish person as head of the European Commission, and once again the Government is reluctant to campaign for a citizen for high position.

The problem is that none of the candidates were party members. You may subscribe to the idea that this is fair enough – after all, if Fianna Fáil put in someone from another party as European commissioner now, it could be 10 years before they get to nominate one of their own should they lose the next general election. But it begs the question of whether these jobs are simply gifts for the party faithful.

Now former Fine Gael taoiseach John Bruton has put himself forward for the job of EU president, but the Government does not really want to know. They were told three weeks ago but kept mum about it. Perhaps this was to protect him from the fate of early starters. Or, as the Taoiseach’s comments suggested, the Government wants to back winners – something at variance with his support of Tony Blair whose bid has sunk like a stone.