The Attorney General, Mr David Byrne, is set this morning to be ratified by the Cabinet as the next Irish EU commissioner, sources in Dublin and Brussels have confirmed to The Irish Times.
The appointment of Mr Byrne to the £170,000-a-year post will avoid a by-election but opens up a vacancy for the position of Attorney General. The PDs expect to have Mr Michael McDowell SC appointed to the position.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will telephone the Commission President-designate, Mr Romano Prodi, this morning to discuss the nomination following a meeting with the Tanaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats, Ms Harney. The Cabinet is then expected to confirm the decision.
Mr Byrne was in Brussels yesterday for a meeting with Mr Prodi. While Mr Prodi is understood previously to have advocated the appointment of one of the two other potential nominees suggested by the Taoiseach - the former minister for justice, Ms Maire Geoghegan-Quinn - to help the gender balance in the Commission, sources here say he has received very favourable reports of Mr Byrne and is most unlikely to raise any objections. Under the Amsterdam Treaty the nominees must be jointly approved.
A successful senior counsel who specialised in personal injury work at the Bar, Mr Byrne has been Attorney General since the return to power two years ago of Fianna Fail and the PDs and has the essential prerequisite, a safe pair of hands.
He handled the establishment of the tribunals on planning and payments to politicians, minimised the political fall-out from the Sheedy affair and started to bring some order to the Army deafness claims.
Mr Byrne also played an important role in the constitutional aspects of the Belfast Agreement and the legislation setting up North-South bodies.
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