MINISTER OF State Seán Sherlock has suggested Cabinet reconsider the decision to nominate the Department of Finance’s secretary general Kevin Cardiff to a senior European Union job.
Mr Sherlock, a Labour TD, told The Irish Times he believed Mr Cardiff had “dirtied his bib” following the revelation last week that the national debt had been overstated by €3.6 billion.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan of Fine Gael yesterday insisted Mr Cardiff retained the Government’s full support as its nominee to the European Court of Auditors in Luxembourg early next year, but Mr Sherlock said the decision could be revisited.
“The gentleman has dirtied his bib. This is perhaps a decision that the Cabinet should look at again,” Mr Sherlock said.
However, Mr Noonan said that Mr Cardiff had already been nominated and that the Government had subsequently received positive “signals” from the European Parliament.
“He must go through the relevant committee of the European Parliament and of course it will be up to the European Parliament in their independence to recommend him or not,” Mr Noonan said.
“But all the signals we have from the European Parliament is that they find him as an acceptable candidate who is technically qualified for the job.”
Mr Noonan said that while previous appointments to the position had “tended to be political”, Mr Cardiff had the technical and financial skills appropriate for the position.
“Kevin Cardiff is a full-time professional civil servant who as far as I know has never had any involvement in party politics, so he’s not like Barry Desmond or Richie Ryan or Máire Geoghegan-Quinn who held the post previously who were all past government ministers appointed by one administration or another. That’s what I mean that he’s not political.”
The double counting of €3.6 billion, which was flagged as a potential issue by the National Treasury Management Agency as far back as August 2010, was not detected by the Department of Finance until recently.