The Government was last night at the centre of a new storm over the controversial nomination of former Supreme Court judge Mr Hugh O'Flaherty as vice-president of the European Investment Bank.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, claimed he was told by "the highest authority" in the bank yesterday that it was the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, who requested that the EIB use the written procedure to seek the agreement of the EIB directors to Mr O'Flaherty's appointment.
He further alleged that he was told it was Mr McCreevy who requested the deadline of August 18th for receipt of votes.
Mr Bruton claimed that he was informed of these facts "by the highest level in the EIB" yesterday morning. His source in the EIB told him that only four of the EIB's 25 directors had supported the O'Flaherty nomination within the deadline.
While Mr Bruton refused to say who his source was, The Irish Times understands it was the chairman of the bank, Mr Philippe Maystadt, one of the most powerful and influential officers in the organisation. Mr Maystadt is on holiday and is not due back in his office until later this week.
It was confirmed last night that Mr McCreevy is also on holidays and could not be contacted about the latest allegations from Mr Bruton. However, a spokesman for the Minister said he was completely unaware of and had no evidence or knowledge of the specific allegations made by the Fine Gael leader in a statement and in a radio interview.
He said to the best of his knowledge, the Minister did not communicate in any way with the board of directors on this issue.
The Government was left highly embarrassed last Friday when its attempt to secure the £147,000-a-year post for Mr O'Flaherty failed when only a handful of the 25 EIB directors voted within the deadline. A simple majority of 13 votes in favour are needed before Mr O'Flaherty's name can go forward to the bank's governors, made up of EU finance ministers, for endorsement.
It was initially expected that the directors would give their backing to Mr O'Flaherty at a meeting on July 25th. Instead, the meeting agreed to have a postal ballot on the nomination with the closing date for postal or e-mail votes at close of business on August 18th. The bank is now insisting that August 18th was only a target deadline and that because of the holiday period, votes would be accepted for the next two weeks.
Both Mr Bruton and the Lab our party spokesman on enterprise and employment, Mr Pat Rabbitte, last night challenged Mr McCreevy to respond to the latest allegations.
Mr Bruton said if the Minister asked for the procedure and the deadline and failed to get the decision he wanted, he had placed himself in the humiliating position of asking for an extension of his own deadline.
He said the fact that only four of the 25 EIB directors, fewer than one-sixth, voted for Mr O'Flaherty demonstrated the widespread reluctance on the part of Ireland's EU partners to support this proposal. "It also demonstrates strong resistance to any attempts to railroad the decision. It shows Mr McCreevy to have no political judgment."
Mr Bruton said in the interests of Ireland's position in Europe, Mr O'Flaherty's nomination should be withdrawn.
An EIB spokesman last night refused to confirm or deny Mr Bruton's claim that only four of the bank's 25 directors had so far supported the nomination of Mr O'Flaherty.
Mr Rabbitte said a detailed statement was needed from Mr McCreevy. "The Minister for Finance must reply in detail to these latest allegations surrounding the O'Flaherty nomination. If the allegations are true, then they reveal the level of panic which the O'Flaherty nomination has caused in Government circles."
He said the written procedure method in relation to this nomination had failed completely. "If the genesis of this idea came from the Minister for Finance, then he must fully account for his decision and also explain why he thought it necessary to suggest to the EIB how it should do its business."