(31 August 2015 – Ireland) Ireland’s Finance Minister Michael Noonan is looking for a new central bank governor as the 1 September deadline looms for candidates to declare an interest in succeeding current governor Patrick Honohan.
So far the favourite is government official Robert Watt, while others are in the running such as John McHale, an economics professor at NUI Galway, and John Fell of the European Central Bank (ECB).
Honohan was picked from an academic background in 2009 for the Central Bank of Ireland’s top job to help restore the institution’s credibility following a real estate and banking collapse that took previous leaders by surprise.
Whoever gets the job will have more than just Ireland’s financial system to care for.
With the euro-area’s other 18 central-bank heads and the Frankfurt-based ECB’s six-person Executive Board, they’ll sit on the ECB Governing Council, which sets monetary policy for the currency bloc.