THE GOVERNMENT has appointed Eoin O’Shea (33), an accountant and barrister, to fill Ireland’s vacancy on the European Court of Auditors, the Luxembourg-based body which oversees the EU’s accounts.
A former chief executive of the Institute of Directors in Ireland, Mr O’Shea grew up in Athlone, Co Westmeath and lives in Dublin. He assumes the position in succession to Ireland’s new European commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.
Mr O’Shea will hold the post, which carries an annual salary in excess of €180,000, for the remainder of Ms Geoghegan-Quinn’s six-year term, which is due to expire in 2012.
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern appointed Mr O’Shea to the audit committee of the Garda in October 2008. In 2007, the Government appointed him under the St Andrews Agreement as an expert adviser to review the efficiency and effectiveness of the North-South bodies established under the Belfast Agreement.
In 2009, he was appointed by the Department of Arts and the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs to review spending by Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the traditional music organisation.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen made public Mr O’Shea’s appointment in Brussels last night. “Mr O’Shea has extensive knowledge of Irish Government and business, and his particular experience in audit and accounting, together with his legal expertise, means that he would be an excellent member of the European Court of Auditors,” the Taoiseach said.
Mr O’Shea is founding chairman of Ground Marketing Group, a strategic marketing communications company with clients in national and international business. The company joined the Havas advertising group last December.
Separately, the nomination of former Fianna Fáil MEP Eoin Ryan to the board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London is understood to be imminent.
Nominated to the post by Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, Mr Ryan will succeed the alternate director Anne Counihan, who followed former Progressive Democrats leader Des O’Malley in the post.
Ireland and Denmark rotate the positions of full and alternate director on the bank’s board. In the course of the three-year position, Mr Ryan will become a full director, a post which commands a salary of more than €131,000.