The Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Paddy McKernan, is relinquishing his post later this year and, it is said, may go to Paris as ambassador. His announcement will allow a successor to be nominated in time for the huge moves due in the Department this summer. Wishlists went to senior diplomats last October but they are still awaiting news. Now, those at assistant secretary level in all Government Departments are being invited to show an interest in, rather than apply for (as they do in other Departments), the SG job at Foreign Affairs. Front runners are second secretary, Daithi O Ceallaigh; ambassador to Washington, Sean O hUiginn; and ambassador to Berlin Noel Fahey. An obvious choice would be Ted Barrington, ambassador to London, but he has been planning a career break. The decision, which all at the court of the Borgias are watching with intense interest since so many careers are at stake, rests with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, who is currently in Australia.
Whoever gets to be secretary general will start a domino effect down the line and 11 diplomats have recently been selected for a promotion panel to assistant secretary/ ambassador level. They are Garry Ansboro, Ray Bassett, Gerry Corr, Pat Hennessy, Michael Hoey, Eugene Hutchinson, Declan Kelly, Don Mulhall, John Neary, Clare O'Flaherty and Sean Whelan. Some 20 ambassadorial posts will need filling in one of the biggest reshuffles of recent years but they won't be allocated until McKernan's successor is nominated. They include four retirements: Geraldine Skinner, Luxembourg; Eamon O'Toole, the Holy See; Eamon Ryan, Belgium; and John Campbell, Lisbon. Ambassadors are due to be posted for the first time to Norway and to some of the EU applicant states, such as Slovenia.
Then there are ambassadors who have served their term and are on the move, such as Patrick O'Connor, Paris; Anne Anderson, UN Geneva; Declan O'Donovan, Tokyo; Brendan Scannell, Tel Aviv; Dick O`Brien, Canberra; Denis O'Leary, EU Brussels; and Pat McCabe, Warsaw. Ankara is also available, since Antoin MacUnfraidh has been appointed head of the EU Monitoring Mission in the Balkans. London will almost certainly be vacant and Washington and Berlin could be too.