Cowen was told de Búrca would not get post

IRELAND’S COMMISSIONER Máire Geoghegan-Quinn told the Taoiseach she would not be employing then senator Déirdre de Búrca in her cabinet after the commission was accepted by the European Parliament.

In his first comments to the Dáil on the controversy, Brian Cowen said the nomination for commissioner “was decided by Government”.

“It was intimated to me by my colleague Minister John Gormley that the former senator de Búrca was interested in trying to obtain a position. I indicated there was an interest from Senator de Búrca,” Mr Cowen told Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil.

“The commissioner, the nominee, was prepared to have a look at that and see if that would be possible but not on the basis of any condition precedent having been set on her part.

“She had yet to go to the parliament and her independence had to be accepted and was accepted and respected. The issue of the composition of her cabinet could only arise upon her being approved by the parliament.”

Ms de Búrca resigned her position as senator and her membership of the Green Party when she was turned down for a position in Ms Geoghegan-Quinn’s cabinet, claiming Fianna Fáil was “running rings” around the Green Party.

She said she had been assured she would get the job, and the Greens had supported Ms Geoghegan-Quinn’s nomination as commissioner on that basis.

Mr Gilmore asked “if the Taoiseach offered the post of chef de cabinet of the new Irish member of the Court of Auditors to Ms de Búrca by way of compensation?...”

Mr Cowen said: “I sought to assist in whatever way I could after it became clear that it would not be possible for her to become a member of the cabinet of Máire Geoghegan-Quinn”.

Mr Gilmore asked: “When did Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn tell you she wouldn’t be employing Senator de Búrca?”

Mr Cowen responded: “That would have arisen, at a date which I can’t be clear about, after her acceptance by the parliament for the position.”