Now that the Department of Foreign Affairs has a new secretary general designate, Dermot Gallagher, the Minister, Brian Cowen, will start work with the outgoing secretary general, Paddy McKernan, on the huge reshuffle that the mandarins have been awaiting anxiously for months. The first jobs on the agenda are replacements for Ted Barrington, who is taking a career break, as Ambassador in London, and for Denis O'Leary at the EU in Brussels, two of the most important jobs in the service. After that, more than 15 ambassadorial-level changes are possible, for which the lobbying and rumour-mongering is in full flight. Will Daithi O Ceallaigh choose to remain as second secretary with responsibility for Anglo-Irish affairs? Cowen's choices are expected to be put to Cabinet after Easter.
One new job arises out of this week's developments. This is a replacement for Gallagher at the Department of the Taoiseach. He has had a long and distinguished career at DFA, including the bilateral aid programme, London, Washington and the Belfast Agreement. Although the secretary general to the Government, Dermot McCarthy, will now take on Gallagher's previous job of secretary general in the Department of the Taoiseach as well as his own, a new post of second secretary at the department is being created to handle the North, the EU and international affairs. Confused? Quidnunc is but she knows this prime job is much coveted. Not least because McCarthy doesn't travel, for fear of flying, so the second secretary will have the honour of accompanying Bertie Ahern around the world.