Irish Examiner View: Two nominations put forward to replace Phil Hogan

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holding a joint press conference with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at Government Buildings, Dublin.

Once Ursula von der Leyen asked for two people, one a woman and the other a man, to be proposed to replace Phil Hogan, Micheál Martin's Government had no choice but to comply. 

There may be no legal compunction to do so but in the Brussels bubble where relationships within hierarchies all but define success or failure it would have been more than foolish to deny her request.