Suggestions that the former Taoiseach, Mr Albert Reynolds, might become Ireland's ambassador to the US would cause a "revolution", the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said in the Dail.
He was responding during Question Time to Mr Billy Timmins (FG, Wicklow) who suggested that Mr Reynolds would make a great diplomat. Mr Reynolds is due to retire as a TD at the next general election.
The Minister believed such a proposal for his former leader might not go down too well in his department. "I don't want to cause a revolution in the Department of Foreign Affairs," he said. "That might well happen if I proposed Mr Reynolds. I could find myself being ducked in the pond in St Stephen's Green."
The issue of non-career diplomats had been discussed before but never followed up, the Minister said. He did not think such an idea had a future given the level of talent within the department.