Governor under a cloud even before he starts role

If you were Paschal Donohoe, you would need news like this like a hole in the head. After a pretty bruising term, where he has been savaged by the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC), has seen overruns on the National Broadband Plan and the Children’s Hospital, and has had to endure strikes by nurses and support staff, Donohoe has had a lot on his plate.

But the one area where he surely did not see any potential danger was the appointment of his new Central Bank governor. Donohoe, a reformer, was keen to avoid slipping back into the old ways of merely appointing his secretary general to the post, as was custom and practice up until the crash a decade ago. Instead, after an exhaustive search which cost €70,000, he plumped for a foreigner with a wealth of experience.