IRELAND'S NOMINEE FOR EU COMMISSIONER

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DUBLIN 000502 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/24/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR ECON EUN EI SUBJECT: IRELAND'S NOMINEE FOR EU COMMISSIONER REF: DUBLIN 416 AND PREVIOUS DUBLIN 00000502 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Robert J. Faucher. Reasons 1.4(b/d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: A highly placed official (PROTECT) in the Prime Minister's office told us that Ireland's nominee for the first post-Lisbon European Commission, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, was tapped not only for her qualifications but also for domestic and EU-wide political reasons. Ireland hopes for an economic portfolio of "moderate" importance, and nominating a woman with Geoghegan-Quinn's background was thought to improve the chances of garnering such a portfolio. Geoghegan-Quinn's resume suggests she could handle a Commission job well, and we do not expect her past association with anti-Lisbon crusader Declan Ganley to affect her candidacy. She is currently a member of the European Court of Auditors and served three times as a cabinet minister during 22 years as a member of the Irish parliament. END SUMMARY. -------------- FACTORS DETERMINING THE NOMINATION -------------- ¶2. (C) After Prime Minister Brian Cowen announced Geoghegan-Quinn's nomination on November 17, Poloff talked to John Callinan (PROTECT),Assistant Secretary General of the European and International Affairs Division in the Department of the Prime Minister. Callinan said Cowen had decided on Geoghegan-Quinn personally, and that, given that all of the top contenders had roughly equivalent personal qualifications, two factors dominated in his decision-making process: domestic political considerations, and the desire for an important portfolio for the next Irish EU Commissioner. Geoghegan-Quinn was the contender who best fit the bill in both areas. -------------- --- DOMESTIC POLITICS: THE COALITION'S SLIM MAJORITY -------------- --- ¶3. (C) Callinan confirmed the widely held assumption of press and pundits that Cowen wanted to nominate someone of his own party (centrist Fianna Fail),but that he could not afford to lose a seat in the Irish parliament with the governing coalition holding only a four-seat majority. This ruled out nominating not only a current member of parliament but also a sitting minister, as all cabinet ministers also hold parliament seats. Geoghegan-Quinn represented a good solution to this dilemma. She is a Fianna Fail member who has had ample experience both as a cabinet minister and as a member of parliament; she left electoral politics in 1997 but has current EU experience as a member of the European Court of Auditors since 2000. -------------- EU POLITICS: GETTING A GOOD PORTFOLIO -------------- ¶4. (C) Callinan said the desire to optimize Ireland's chances of getting as important a Commission portfolio as possible was a primary factor in Cowen,s decision to nominate Geoghegan-Quinn. Callinan told us Cowen had spoken "many times" to Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who makes the final decision on which portfolios each new Commissioner will get. Cowen had discussed possible nominees and made known to Barroso which portfolios Ireland wanted most. -------------- GOING FOR MID-IMPORTANCE ECONOMIC POST -------------- ¶5. (C) Callinan said that Ireland was shooting for an economic portfolio of mid-level importance. Cowen did not believe Ireland, as a small EU member state, had a chance at a high-importance portfolio this time around for three reasons. First, outgoing Irish EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy had had a high-importance portfolio, Internal Market, for the past five years; second, McCreevy, rightly or wrongly, was not well thought of in Brussels ) the general consensus was that he had not worked hard nor performed at a level worthy of the portfolio; and third, despite the resounding success of the October 2 referendum (reftels),the trauma of the Lisbon Treaty debate had weakened Ireland's hand in Brussels. In this context, what Ireland wanted to avoid if at all possible was a low-importance portfolio, such as "anything to do with linguistics." -------------- GOING FOR "FORWARD-LOOKING" PORTFOLIO -------------- DUBLIN 00000502 002.2 OF 003 ¶6. (C) In contrast to what is widely reported in the Irish media, Callinan said Ireland did not want the budget portfolio. Neither was agriculture its top choice. Although Ireland would be relatively satisfied with agriculture, as the EU's Common Agricultural Policy was very important to Ireland, it would prefer a more "forward-looking portfolio, such as one covering research and development or knowledge society. R&D or knowledge society, said Callinan, would fit with how Ireland wants to position itself coming out of the global recession. -------------- NOMINEE FITS BARROSO'S, PM'S, BILLS -------------- ¶7. (C) Given the considerations described in paras 3-6 above, Callinan said, Geoghegan-Quinn was again the best choice. Not only did she have the governmental and political background to command a decent portfolio (see paras 10-11 below for biographic information),but she is also a woman ) and Barroso had pointedly called for member states to nominate women for the next Commission. Her qualifications did not necessarily stand out from those of other possible nominees (Callinan mentioned former European Parliament president Pat Cox as the second choice, followed by former PM and EU Ambassador to the U.S. John Bruton). All have impressive resumes that would augur a successful term as Commissioner, Callinan said. However, unlike Cox and Bruton, Geoghegan-Quinn is a Fianna Fail member and a woman. -------------- NOMINEE AND ANTI-LISBON CRUSADER? -------------- ¶8. (C) Callinan confirmed press reports that, during her time in the private sector from 1997-2000, Geoghegan-Quinn had sat on the board of the Ganley Group, a company run by Declan Ganley, who spearheaded the successful anti-Lisbon campaign in 2008 and played a prominent, if belated, role in the September 2009 "no" campaign. Callinan added, though, that at the time, Ganley was known only as one of the "most successful and forward-looking entrepreneurs in Ireland." His views on the EU were unknown until recent years, and therefore inconsequential. In fact, Callinan opined, Geoghegan-Quinn's association with the Ganley Group, a company specializing in investment in emerging technologies, only strengthens the case that she could obtain the type of forward-looking economic portfolio that Ireland wants for its EU Commissioner. -------------- COMMENT: GEOGHEGAN-QUINN WILL BE COMPETENT -------------- ¶9. (C) Geoghegan-Quinn, who has worked in Luxembourg since 2000 and retired from Irish politics in 1997, is not known personally to us. Her background (see paras 10-11) and reputation in Ireland indicate, however, that she may be expected to be a competent Commissioner and interlocutor with the U.S. Her ample ministerial experience gives her familiarity with the cabinet-level type of work that closely resembles that of an EU Commissioner, and her EU-related experience ) both as Minister of State for European Affairs and as a member of the European Court of Auditors ) indicates a good grounding in the how the EU works. END COMMENT. -------------- GEOGHEGAN-QUINN'S BACKGROUND -------------- ¶10. (SBU) Maire Geoghegan-Quinn was born in 1950 in County Galway in the west of Ireland. Her academic degree is in education. She is married with two adult children. She is a member of the Fianna Fail party (centrist),and served as a member of the Irish parliament for 22 years, from 1975-1997. In 1979 Geoghegan-Quinn became Ireland's first female cabinet minister, when she was appointed Minister for the Gaeltacht, the Gaelic-speaking areas of Ireland. She remained in that position until 1981, following that with service as cabinet minister in other departments or in a slightly lower-ranking minister of state position on many occasions: in 1982, she was Minister of State for Education; from 1987-91 she was Minister of State for European Affairs; from 1992-93, Geoghegan-Quinn was Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications, and from 1993-94 she was Minister of Justice. She left politics in 1997 and worked for the next three years as a business consultant and print and broadcast journalist. She served on the Board of Directors of Aer Lingus and the Ganley Group, Declan Ganley's private equity firm specializing in start-up companies in new technology fields. From 2000 until now, she has worked as a member of DUBLIN 00000502 003.2 OF 003 the European Court of Auditors, the Luxembourg-based institution that monitors and audits the collection and expenditure of EU funds. -------------- REPUTATION FOR TOUGHNESS -------------- ¶11. (C) Geoghegan-Quinn is known for her toughness. At a meeting in November 1991 she told the then-Prime Minister, Charles Haughey, that the people of her constituency, Galway West, never wanted to see his face on an election poster again. In opposition to Haughey's leadership she resigned as Minister of State. Three months later, the efforts of Geoghegan-Quinn and other members of the so-called "Country and Western Alliance," which included Brian Cowen, led to Haughey's being replaced as Prime Minister and Fianna Fail leader by Albert Reynolds. Geoghegan-Quinn was appointed Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications for her loyalty to Reynolds. In 1993, as Minister for Justice, Geoghegan-Quinn introduced substantial reform legislation, including the decriminalization of homosexuality. Widely tipped to be the first female Prime Minister, she challenged Bertie Ahern for the position when Reynolds retired, in November 1994. However, with the odds stacked against her on the day the Fianna Fail members of parliament voted on who should replace Reynolds, she withdrew from the contest and Ahern became Prime Minister. In 1997 she resigned from Irish politics, citing invasion of privacy in reference to newspaper reports about her son's having been expelled from school. When then-Prime Minister Ahern appointed her to the European Court of Auditors, press and pundits interpreted it as a low-key but lucrative end to a political career. FAUCHER