Geoghegan-Quinn vows to turn research into jobs

IRELAND’S next EU commissioner promised to stop the talking and turn scientific research into jobs and help Europe find its way out of the economic crisis.

During a three hour grilling, former justice minister Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, who has been out of Irish politics for more than a decade, introduced herself to the parliament as first and foremost a politician.

She impressed MEPs by speaking in a loud, clear voice as she outlined her priorities for the job of Commissioner in charge of Research, Innovation and Science, which includes the world’s biggest publicly funded research centre with the largest number of workers of any commissioner.

She reiterated that research must produce tangible results and gave the target a new catchphrase, saying that her job would deal with the whole area from “research to retail”.

Obviously nervous at the start of her hearing, she failed to answer questions, but that all changed halfway through as she took control of the huge amphitheatre and outlined her vision for the future if the parliament approves her appointment.

Afterwards, Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said that she had had to keep her mouth shut over the last nine years as a judge in the Court of Auditors. “I was not able to make comments on political life, even during the Lisbon Treaty referendum. But you never forget – it’s like riding a bicycle.”

She wooed members of the committee to which she must report her activities over the next five years, telling them that she too was a politician. “If you are looking for a civil servant, a bureaucrat or a technocrat, I will disappoint you. I, like you, am a politician and I want to get things done.”

The 59-year-old Galway woman will chair an important group of commissioners in the drive to get Europe back on a growth track.

She said that she would take and adhere by her vow to be independent, but added she hoped that the policies she will be in charge of putting in place would benefit every country, “and Ireland is one of them.”

She identified problems in the €51 billion research fund, including complex regulations and promised proposals to simplify them.

She would also try to avoid the kind of duplication of research across the EU evidenced by the fact that there were 72 pieces of research underway into the same salmonella bacteria.

“We are not working as a union. We need to work together to deliver,” Ireland’s first female nominee said.

Meanwhile, outgoing commissioner Charlie McCreevy was referred to by the man who will replace him in the Internal Market job, Michel Barnier. “It’s a new era,” he said, dismissing the man who rarely agreed with the French approach.