The EU Commission is often seen as an austere and somewhat remote body, but it was nonetheless unexpected last week to hear one of its own representatives adding a self-deprecating description to the list.

Speaking at the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs, Herve Carre, the commission's director of monetary affairs, said it was up to politicians to spark the public's interest in the single currency.

The commission, he added, "are a bunch of technocrats" who are unlikely to excite Europe's new citizens.