The former judge, Mr Hugh O'Flaherty, has said he intends to take up the post of vice-president of the European Investment Bank, despite the Irish Times/MRBI opinion poll finding that a large majority of voters believes the Government was wrong to nominate him.
As the Opposition renewed its calls yesterday for the nomination to be reversed, Mr O'Flaherty told The Irish Times last night that the opinion poll result would make no difference to his determination to accept the job.
"If you hold a poll where the whole tide of comment is one way," he said, "what would you expect?" In a case where all commentators are saying that a decision was wrong, he said, "what other result can you get from a poll?"
His comments came as the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and Minister for Finance all insisted the nomination would go ahead, despite the announcement yesterday by the Limerick lecturer, Mr Denis Riordan, that he will again seek to injunct the appointment next week pending a Supreme Court case.
Mr Riordan, whose High Court action against the nomination failed last Monday, said yesterday he would lodge notice of a Supreme Court appeal against that decision next Tuesday or Wednesday. He would seek an injunction preventing the nomination next week and hoped to have this injunction application heard on June 30th.
The Minister for Finance has asked the EIB to go ahead with its ratification of Mr O'Flaherty, a written process that may take a couple of weeks.
However, should Mr Riordan be granted an injunction, Mr O'Flaherty could face a further wait into next month before the Supreme Court adjudicates on the matter. Mr Riordan said yesterday that if he fails he intends to appeal to the European Court of Justice, claiming that the EIB statute does not allow for Government nominations to the vice-presidential position.
The Taoiseach yesterday accepted the opinion poll judgment that the decision was wrong. "That decision is made and the Government has taken a hit for it. It is over," he said.
However, the Minister for Finance and the Tanaiste came out with fresh, defiant comments yesterday. Mr McCreevy said he did not regret his decision to nominate Mr O'Flaherty to the post. "Governments have to make decisions," he said. "I'm paid a handsome salary of £90,000 per annum to make decisions." Not every decision governments made would be universally popular, he said.
Meanwhile, Ms Harney, whose personal poll rating has dropped 13 points in the wake of the O'Flaherty decision, maintained that there were "far more important issues in the country. I would predict three to four months from now, will anybody remember this? Does anybody remember what the Duggan case was about that led to the collapse of the Labour/Fianna Fail Government in 1994? The public's memory can often be a very short-term one."
However, the Taoiseach said he accepted the principle that the people were always right and he would not say they were wrong on this issue. "We will always listen to the people. The people are always right, the people pay us."
The Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, characterised Mr Ahern's statement as "an incredible admission of a mistake by Mr Ahern and then an extraordinarily arrogant assertion that he is going to go ahead with the wrong decision anyway".
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, echoed this comment, saying Mr Ahern's stance was that although "the people were right to say that the Government shouldn't have appointed Hugh O'Flaherty . . . he proposes to go ahead with something which he believes is wrong".