The government has appointed a former Fine Gael senator to a highly-paid European role worth a quarter of a million euro per year.
The current Irish judge at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, Aindreas Ó Caoimh (a former High Court judge), is due to step down in October - and today the government chose Eugene Regan as his replacement.
A former Fine Gael councilor, he ran for Fine Gael in the general election in 2007 - and later made it into the Seanad where he served on the Agricultural Panel for four years.
He has 20 years experience as a barrister, specialising in European law, and can now look forward to a healthy pay packet in Luxembourg, with a basic annual salary of €250,000 per year plus perks.
But the government insists the appointment is totally legitimate, saying his name was put forward by an independent expert panel chaired by retired High Court justice John Cooke.
