THE LEADERS OF the three coalition parties will resume talks today on who they will nominate to replace Phil Hogan as EU Commissioner.

Hogan resigned from the EU Trade Commissioner role last week following the Golfgate controversy.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan will meet to discuss the issue later today.

The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has invited Ireland to nominate both a woman and a man in the interests of gender balance.

The names being mentioned as possible nominations include Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney; current MEP and former minister Frances Fitzgerald; and Mairead McGuinness, a vice president of the European Parliament.

Yesterday, Coveney said he was not ruling himself out as a candidate but would need “a very good reason to move away” from his current work.

Fitzgerald and McGuinness have also express interest in the role.

There is no guarantee that Ireland will retain the Trace Commissioner position.

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The leaders of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party discussed the issue last night and set to talk once again after the Cabinet meeting today.

Hogan resigned from his role as EU Commissioner for Trade last Wednesday amid widespread criticism over his attendance at an Oireachtas Golf Society dinner in Co Galway, as well as his movements in Ireland in recent weeks – which were in breach of Covid-19 guidelines.