THE marathon Bord na Mona board meeting on Monday night and Tuesday morning at times descended into farce. Half-way through the 13 1/2 hours, Eddie O'Connor emerged from the lifts in Dublin's Berkeley Court Hotel and headed down into the basement to get his car. The only problem was that his driver was missing.

Heading back to the lobby, Dr O'Connor had to borrow the mobile phone of RTE's intrepid reporter, Charlie Bird, and phone his own mobile number. It turned out Dr O'Connor's driver was on the other side of the lobby, hidden behind a scrum of Europhiles in Dublin to celebrate the opening of Ireland's presidency.

As the meeting dragged on into the small hours, Ireland's EU Commissioner, Padraig Flynn, returned from Ireland's first presidency dinner and feigned bemusement at how so much media attention was turned on Bord na Mona at a time of such momentous importance for Ireland's role in Europe.