Eamon Gilmore expresses interest in Commission job

Outgoing Irish Tanaiste and Labour leader Eamon Gilmore has admitted he is interested in becoming his country’s next European Commissioner, taking over from Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the current Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science.

Gilmore has said that if Taoiseach Enda Kenny asked him to become Ireland’s next commissioner, he “would have to think about it”.

He told the Irish Independent: “It is not an issue of being a candidate, there is not an election or anything like that. It is for the Taoiseach to make the nomination. If the Taoiseach asks me then I would have to think about it. But it is a long commute from Shankill to Brussels.”

Geoghegan-Quinn’s term of office runs until the end of October, yet new appointments are expected to be announced in advance of the autumn.