MICHAEL D HIGGINS has never been a man to mince his words and that trait has continued even since becoming Uachtaráin na hÉireann. But President Higgins now has a new head to bounce ideas off in the form of his new head speech writer, Aziliz Gouez.
Gouez sounds like she is certainly equipped for the high-profile role with two masters degrees to her name, research experience in Cambridge as well as six-years in a Paris-based think-tank as head of research.
President Higgins won’t be the first diminutive head of state she’s worked for either having previously worked in the the constituency office of current French President François Hollande when he was leader of the French Socialist Party.
She’ll be familiar with the repetitive economic rhetoric that goes with Irish politics these days as her last position involved researching the Irish sovereign debt crisis at Cambridge University.
But Gouez also sounds like she could give President Higgins some cultured advice about what to offer guests at Áras, having authored a 2007 book on the the history of Europeans with wine. In an interview with Time Magazine a number of years ago Gouez also offered visitors to Paris advice on places to eat and drink suggesting President Higgins and his wife Sabine have got themselves a bit of a foodie as well as a highly qualified wordsmith.
Gouez was appointed to the €65,000-a-year position for a three-year period after an open recruitment process conducted through the Public Appointments Service.
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