We may have got foot-and-mouth under control in Ireland but it appears that foot-in-mouth is becoming ever more rampant in Europe.

The President of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, was visiting this week to get a handle on the reasons behind the Irish electorate's decision to vote No against Nice.

In his first interview Mr Prodi revealed that ratification of the treaty was not necessary for enlargement, which could legally proceed under existing treaties. That, of course, was one of the central arguments of the No camp.

Quite what his host Bertie Ahern made of it is unclear. After all, the Taoiseach has taken the line that ratification was key to enlargement and that failure to back the treaty would condemn applicant states to a second-class existence outside the EU.

Perhaps Mr Prodi caught the bug from ECB president Wim Duisenberg, who was also in town this week and whose capacity for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time is legendary.