Anthony Coughlan, Ireland's leading eurosceptic, who led the charge against Hugh O'Flaherty's nomination as vice president of the EIB, has written to the new Government nominee, Michael Tutty, urging him not to take the job. In an open letter, Coughlan warns Tutty against becoming a "catspaw of Minister Charles McCreevy" because, he argues, the Supreme Court judgment in the Denis Riordan case stated the Government had no legal right to nominate but merely possessed the right to express a wish for a favoured person. "That favoured person is now you. But some 20 other Irish citizens have also applied for the position, among them Mr Richard Douthwaite and Mr Denis Riordan. They too have expressed the wish that they be appointed and in the light of the Supreme Court's findings your `nomination' has no more legal weight or standing than any of theirs. You have the advantage, if advantage it is, of being the latest favourite of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Tanaiste Mary Harney and Finance Minister McCreevy."
Coughlan then goes on to demand by what right Tutty allows himself to be proffered "for pseudo nomination" without public advertisement and opportunity for other qualified applications to be considered etc. Despite Coughlan and the 20 candidates, whose names the EIB will not release on confidentiality grounds (but who are understood to include several well-known banking types), Tutty should be installed in Luxembourg by early October. The EIB Board of Directors is now voting and the 15 EU ministers will rubberstamp the appointment. Tutty, a keen cyclist, intends keeping one bike in Dublin and another in Luxembourg, so he can cycle every Saturday during his four-year term. One friendly face in his new country is Maire Geoghegan Quinn, our woman on the Court of Auditors, and another is Yves Mersch, the Governor of the Luxembourg Central Bank who is also an enthusiastic cyclist.