As incoming commissioner, David Byrne was learning the ropes, the outgoing man, Pee Flynn was on private business in Ireland this week and, unusually for him, missed the commission meeting here on Tuesday. But then he is preparing his memoirs. Flynn is writing a book about his life in politics and is already collecting material. He intends getting down to the task at his homes in Dublin and Castlebar; the third, in Brussels, is about to go, once he is out of a job in mid-September. The restriction on cabinet members and officials writing books did not exist in Flynn's day and the bar on commissioners spilling the beans only holds while they are serving.
To say he has a few tales to tell is an understatement. But will he spill the beans, from the FF heaves to the fall of the Santer commission? Let's hope so.