Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Neil Kinnock was head of staffing matters in the Commission. Ireland has been competent in having people appointed to the highest positions in the European institutions, as was the case with Mr. Barry McSweeney, a former head of the EU's Joint Research Centre. Not only did he have 2,600 people working under him, he also ran a highly structured organisation with a budget of €340 million. He came from a fellowship programme which he had built into a fine project and set up BioResearch Ireland.

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