GOVERNMENT-nominee Kevin Cardiff is going to land the big European job after all.

The main political grouping in the European Parliament has voted to support the nomination of Cardiff to the European Court of Auditors, despite the fact the his job application had previously been turned down by a committee of budgetary MEPs..

The support of the European People's Party (EPP) makes it almost certain that the former Secretary General of the Dept. of Finance Mr, Cardiff will be by the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg tomorrow.

It follows last week’s decision of the Socialist Group, the PES, also to support Mr Cardiff's nomination.

This means the plenary will have taken the unprecedented step of overturning a vote by one of the parliament's own committees.

Three weeks ago Mr. Cardiff's nomination was rejected by 12-11 by the Budgetary Control Committee.

It emerged during the process that Ireland’s current auditor, Eoin O'Shea, had lobbied a number of committee members against Mr Cardiff's nomination.

Mr Cardiff, who was in charge of the Dept. of Finance on the night of the bank guarantee decision, was dogged by controversy - during the original selection process - over an accountancy notional error of €3.6bn in the Dept’s books.