Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has left open the possibility that he may be interested in a senior European position after he retires.
A number of senior European Union jobs will come up in late 2009 if the Lisbon Treaty is ratified by all member states.
Questioned yesterday about his options after retiring as Taoiseach, Mr Ahern offered a hint that he may not want to step aside as leader until his 60th birthday in September 2011, just nine months before a general election has to be called, rather than earlier, as believed by many in Fianna Fáil.
On Europe, he emphasised he was now one of the EU's most experienced national leaders, just behind Luxembourg's Jean Claude Juncker.
Asked if he would take a Brussels job, if offered, he said: "I have given no great thought to that. Most people who would know me would know that I am fairly much a home bird."
However, he went on: "I like Europe, I like dealing with Europe. I have been dealing in the European Council now continuously - except for a very short period - for 21 years. And I like all of that.
"Would I like to be in Brussels, or Strasbourg all of the time? I wouldn't think so. Simple tastes, and I have always been that way."
But he said: "It is nice that a lot of my colleagues - maybe not a majority, maybe a small minority, but a lot of my colleagues on the international stage - would like to see me give some of my time to a role."
On his retirement from parliamentary politics, he told the RTÉ This Weekprogramme: "If you want me to have worked out the date, I have worked out the date. I'm 60 on September 12th, 2011, and the presidential election comes up two months later, but that is as much thought as I have given it. I intend to stay in active parliamentary politics until I am 60, and we will see what I do after that," he said.
