If Hugh O'Flaherty ever does get to Luxembourg, what will he actually do? The European Investment Bank was originally set up to borrow in the bond market and lend on to national governments which the bond market did not consider credit-worthy. But now the bond market is less averse to risk and governments twigged some time ago that it is quicker and cheaper to deal directly with the international financiers. This leaves the EIB, as some people in Luxembourg might say, de trop.
But it is near impossible to dismantle an international bureaucracy (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the OECD also come to mind).
I recall going to see the last Irish man to be a vice president of the EIB, Prof Noel Whelan. He sent his driver to collect me from the train station in Luxembourg. The car was a very commodious Mercedes. The driver also was German. He spent most of the journey from the station to the bank complaining that his duties were so taxing he had only been able to go to his villa in Portugal six times the previous year. Taught me a lot about the European Investment Bank.
