By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — The succession stakes for the £150,000-plus-per-year Euro commissioner post when Padraig Flynn comes home soon from Brussels with a generous golden handshake has left Taoiseach Bertie Ahern sorting through a queue of Euro-wannabes.
As efforts get under way at the Berlin summit this week to try to sort out the political and constitutional mess left by the en bloc resignation of the 20 commissioners, Flynn is unlikely to be shifting until May.
After a whistlestop tour of Euro capital consultations last week by German Chancellor and Council President Gerhard Shroeder, the EU prime ministers will choose a new commission president and will then move on to decide what to do about the individual commissioners.
If agreement is not reached in Berlin — where there is already a heavy budget agenda — a further summit will be called very "swiftly," Shroeder has promised.
Though Flynn emerged unblemished in the sleaze report that forced out the commission, the continuing domestic controversy about the alleged £50,000 donation he received from a London-based property developer means that his days are numbered.
Follow us on social media
Keep up to date with the latest news with The Irish Echo
Tanaiste Mary Harney has already described his position in Brussels as "impossible" and PD Minister of State at Foreign Affairs Liz O’Donnell said last weekend that the view of her party was well known.
The problem would arise when a commissioner had to be appointed either on an interim basis or on a permanent basis for the next term.
"We would have serious difficulties with the reappointment of Padraig Flynn," she said.
Ahern said whoever took up the presidency of the commission would not just take the job to the end of the year but was likely to serve for the next full term.
"When the president is appointed he will set about building and developing a new commission team for the next five years plus," Ahern said. "There will have to be a lot of debate about how that will happen and when that will happen but it is going to be a few weeks yet before that becomes clear."
The taoiseach said there was no short list for the new Irish commissioner.
"I note that there are a number of names being mentioned," he said. "I find that all very interesting. I have had no discussions on the matter."
The tight Dail arithmetic of his minority coalition with the Progressive Democrats means that Ahern will almost certainly be looking outside his Dail membership, though not necessarily outside his Cabinet.
One option being touted is a coalition double — Attorney General David Byrne, a close confidante of Ahern, steps into Flynn’s shoes, and the former PD TD and senior counsel Michael McDowell comes in replace him.
It is unlikely that the job will not go to a Fianna Failer but other suggestions include Dick Spring, the former Labor Party leader, or Alan Dukes, a euro-enthusiast and author of the so-called Tallaght strategy when he was Fine Gael leader. It involved support for Fianna Fail’s economic policies in the national interest.
Also being mentioned are former Commissioners Ray MacSharry and Peter Sutherland. Both are now wealthy businessmen and are unlikely to be tempted back into politics.
Others being mentioned include former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, former Justice minister Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, and former Foreign Minister and currently Munster Euro-MP Gerry Collins.
Ireland will need to choose a candidate that is regarded as a heavy hitter if they are to get a good commission portfolio when the jobs are shared out.
Flynn will be walking away a wealthy man thanks to generous pension arrangements. His goodbye money from Brussels will include a pension of about £40,000 and a golden handshake of about £240,000.
This is because departing commissioners are entitled to a transitional allowance payable for three years, based on a percentage of their annual basic salary. The payment is worth between 40 and 65 percent of a commissioner’s basic salary, depending on length of service.
Commissioners also get a pension when they reach the age of 65 based on their final annual salary and the number of years they have worked for the Commission.
Flynn is already getting an Irish pension package estimated at a £40,000 a year for his time as a minister, TD and national school teacher in Castlebar, Co. Mayo.