The influential coordinator of the centre-right group in the European Parliament's Budgetary Affairs Committee has told RTÉ News that she voted against Kevin Cardiff's nomination to the Court of Auditors because both Irish and Socialist MEPs prevented a postponement of the hearing.
Ingeborg Grassle, a German MEP from the European People's Party, said she had requested a postponement of the hearing in order to submit further questions to Mr Cardiff about his role in the Irish banking crisis and Ireland's request for an EU-IMF bailout.
Mrs Grassle said the refusal by Socialist MEPs on the committee meant that she had no choice but to reject his nomination.
She said the Socialists on the group wanted to avoid a postponement because there was pressure to postpone the hearing of the Spanish nomination to the court.
This was because the Spanish candidate had been put forward by the outgoing Socialist government, which was beaten by the centre right People's Party in last Sunday's elections.
She also told RTÉ News that she had received at least 20 emails from Irish citizens urging her not to accept Mr Cardiff's nomination.
Some of these emails, she said, were extremely detailed.
Mrs Grassle said she wanted the extra information about Mr Cardiff because of fears over a potential conflict of interest if Mr Cardiff were to be appointed to the Luxembourg-based Court of Auditors.
She said the conflict of interest related to the EU's permanent bailout mechanism, the European Stability Mechanism, due to come into force in 2013.
The new permanent bailout mechanism, which will govern Ireland's existing bailout, will be audited by the European Court of Auditors.
Mrs Grassle said the fact that Mr Cardiff had been involved in the events leading to Ireland's bailout meant that she wanted to be sure there would be no "conflict of interest" if he were on the court.
She told RTÉ News that she had felt Mr Cardiff performed well at yesterday's hearing, but that she could not vote for him in the absence of further answers.
"He made a rather good impression, but we needed more answers," Mrs Grassle said. "We had to ask, what was his role?"
Mrs Grassle declined to say if all 11 EPP MEPs on the committee voted against Mr Cardiff. Fine Gael is a member of the EPP group.
She told RTÉ News this afternoon that she was going to request that the plenary session of the European Parliament refer the nomination of Mr Cardiff back to the Budgetary Affairs Committee.
She said she wanted to calm the situation down.
Irish member admits sending email critical of Cardiff
Mrs Grassle also confirmed that she had received emails from the current auditor, Eoin O'Shea about Mr Cardiff's application but said that he had in no way tried to jeopardise Mr Cardiff's candidacy.
She said that she had a working relationship with Mr O'Shea over the past number of years because of her involvement in a working group looking at how EU agencies operate, and she said they were in regular email contact.
As a member of the Court of Auditors Mr O'Shea was collaborating with her and others on the issue, she said.
"I appreciated his work," she said. "I'm not the only one."
Mrs Grassle said she did not have the impression that Mr O'Shea was trying to "act against" Mr Cardiff. She added that any information he provided to her in no way affected her vote.
At a meeting of the Oireachtas European Affairs Committee earlier today Mr O'Shea admitted to sending an email critical of Mr Cardiff to an MEP.
He said the email was written when he may have been feeling angry about not being reappointed to the court by the Government and he has since apologised to Mr Cardiff.
Both the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have said they were "disappointed" that Mr O'Shea sent disparaging emails about Mr Cardiff.
Speaking this afternoon, Enda Kenny and Eamon Gilmore refused to be drawn on whether Mr O'Shea should see out his term on the court.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the information contained in the email sent was already the subject of an apology in a national newspaper and Mr O'Shea would have to explain the issue further.
Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa said in a statement today that the development strengthened the case for approval of Mr Cardiff's nomination.
"I was present at both the public and private sessions of this committee yesterday and it was very obvious that the negative campaigning by Mr O'Shea and some MEPs had played a major role in the outcome," said Mr De Rossa.
He said: "I have already brought these new facts to the attention of Ms Inez Ayala Sender, the MEP responsible for bringing the report of the Budget Committee proceedings to the parliament's December Session in Strasbourg for final decision."
Mr De Rossa also claimed that Mr O'Shea had also tried to influence MEPs by means other than email.
"As far as I understand it however, emails were not the only method he used," he said.
"He also directly approached MEPs from other member states, seeking to persuade them not to support Mr Cardiff and urging them to influence the Rapporteur not to support Mr Cardiff."
Ms Sander told RTÉ News today that her report on the hearing to be presented to the plenary session of the Parliament would be restricted to registering the committee's rejection of Mr Cardiff's nomination.
She said the report would not contain any references to the emails sent by Mr O'Brien, nor would it carry any of her own opinions that the rejection be overturned.
Ms Sender said as a member of the Socialist party, the PES, she would convey her opinions to the party's bloc in the plenary session in advance of the vote that the rejection be overturned, but as rapporteur on the Budgetary Control Committee she was prevented from including in the report anything but the facts of the vote and the recommendation of the Committee that Mr Cardiff's nomination be rejected.
She said it was likely that within the political groups of the Parliament there would be discussions about the emails sent by O'Shea, and the narrowness of the vote.
Earlier, Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte said he was more interested in getting Mr Cardiff’s appointment completed, rather than an investigation into controversial emails written by Mr O'Shea.
Speaking in Brussels, the Minister said he did not know the full detail about the emails, but would be surprised if Mr O'Shea had sent them after the Government had nominated Mr Cardiff.
Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley accused the committee of "hijacking" Mr O'Shea and failing to treat him in a fair manner.
Mr Dooley said it was clear the email was prompted by resentment at Mr Cardiff's nomination, and that this would not have had as much impact as the public criticism of Mr Cardiff by MEPs.
Chairman of the Committee Joe Costello said it had been agreed to write to the Chairman of the Budgetary Committee to find out if the emails influenced its decision.
The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste both indicated that the process to nominate Mr Cardiff to the Court would continue.
Mr Kenny said the decision on his appointment would be made by the European Parliament as a whole, and not a single committee.
