Welcome Mr. Cardiff and welcome to the hearing here today.
I have to say by way of preamble I’m very pleased that the Irish Government is offering a person of such in Ireland, of such integrity and qualifications for the job of auditor.
I have been arguing for a long time with my colleagues in government that we must that we must make a very serious contribution to Europe and we must do so by having people here who are of the highest quality and the highest qualifications.
I am therefore very pleased that they have, on this occasion at least, listened to me and that they have put forward Mr. Cardiff for this job.
I’m impressed by the openness in which you’re answering the questions here today. I would urge members not to pay attention to emails which are driven by party political considerations rather than considerations of fact and qualifications and the Treaty obligations that are on us as MEPs to ensure that the person we appoint here has integrity, independence and qualifications.
That’s the criteria we have to apply here today.