The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, yesterday ruled out any interest in becoming Ireland's next EU Commissioner and he expressed satisfaction that the Taoiseach was not going to Europe to succeed Romano Prodi as EU Commission president. Barry Roche, Southern Correspondent, reports.
Mr McCreevy said the planned reshuffle of the Cabinet due to take place later this year had been flagged by Mr Ahern as early as 2002, following that year's general election, and he didn't expect to be leaving the Department of Finance after spending seven years there.
"I'm not making any arrangements for travel plans, either internally or externally, nor do I intend making them. I think my best role is in Irish politics, I've enjoyed being Minister for Finance," said Mr McCreevy.
"My job as Minister for Finance is to create the economic conditions which allow the economy to flourish. When the economy flourishes, there's more money for other areas of social inclusion, and I think this Government has done a pretty decent job over the last seven years and I intend to keep doing it."
Mr McCreevy said that he never expected Mr Ahern to go to Europe and he believed the Taoiseach remained a huge electoral asset to Fianna Fáil and would lead the party into the next general election in a bid for a third successive term in government.
"I was asked a few weeks ago did I think Bertie Ahern was going to Europe and I said in my opinion, knowing him for some time, that he was not going to go to Europe nor had any intention of going there.
"We were elected on the same day in 1977, we served in government for a long time, and a minister for finance and the taoiseach - whether they want it or not - would have to get on very well together because you have very close dealings. We get on very well on a political level, we certainly get on very well on a personal level, and knowing him both personally and politically, I would have been quite amazed if he had gone to Europe.
"Of course I'm glad he's staying - he's the most successful Fianna Fáil leader that we've had for a very long time and Bertie Ahern succeeded for the first time in 33 years for a government to be re-elected. He's our biggest electoral asset."
Mr McCreevy played down suggestions of tensions with the Progressive Democrats over the planned break-up of Aer Rianta and insisted the two parties were agreed on the aim of maximising the potential of Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.
"The overall aim is to ensure that all of these airports operate to their maximum capability, and it was decided some time ago by the Government that the best way to do this was to give autonomous authority to the various airports," said Mr McCreevy.
"A basis for viability does exist, but you must remember that although passenger numbers have been increasing, the net profit of Aer Rianta has been decreasing, so irrespective of what structures were to be in place, something dramatic must be done in relation to Aer Rianta," he said.
Mr McCreevy said that various interested parties had their own ideas on how this should be achieved, but the various business plans being prepared by the individual airports that are expected to be presented over the coming months will have to be approved by both the Minister for Transport and himself.
"I don't accept there are any potential pitfalls for the Government over the break-up of the airports - the Programme for Government says that we will give independence to the various airports, though it is silent as to how that is to be achieved.
"What we're endeavouring to do here is to get the maximum results and there is no difficulty between ourselves and the PDs on the particular issue. It's the methodology about how we go about achieving that that has to be decided," he added.
Mr McCreevy rejected any suggestion that the poor performance of the Government parties in the recent local elections was due to arrogance on the part of the Government and said the same was said of parties that had been in power for long periods in other countries, such as Britain and Germany.
"I don't think there's any one reason why we did badly in the local elections. I don't think there's any one individual. I think it's probably due to a combination of factors".
He added: "We have three years to the next election and we'll be trying our best to ensure that we get returned."