Previous history of throwing large amounts of cash at Republican Party a definite plus.
Must have endless capacity for small talk, smiling, clapping hands. Tolerance for vast amounts of rain, stewed tea and dark beer a must. Successful candidate will be required to say "I love Ireland" on frequent occasions, even if sentiment is not always heartfelt at particular moment.
New laws will allow successful candidate to bring along rabies-free family pet.
Children a plus.
Successful candidate will be responsible for 26-county area. Northern Ireland in/out of bounds depending on changing political circumstances and/or 2004 campaign requirements.
The recent, rather sudden departure of US Ambassador Richard Egan from the embassy in Dublin has launched a new wave of speculation on this side of the Atlantic as to the identity of the next inhabitant of one of the choicest addresses in Ireland: the American ambassador's residence in the Phoenix Park.
The habit of the United States to mix and match diplomatic emissaries has resulted in a periodic frenzy in which journalists, pundits and other interested onlookers talk and write up a storm over the identity of the next plenipotentiary to London, Paris or Dublin.
This takes place much in the same way that people try to finger an Oscar winner.
Career State Department diplomats do work as ambassadors in US embassies around the globe, particularly in more troubled parts of it.
But it has long been the practice of presidential administrations to hand out plum social postings such as Dublin to loyal supporters, or at least individuals who could be expected to back up any political agenda that the administration might have in mind for the place.
Jean Kennedy Smith was an example of the latter.
She was in a position to pick and choose her own social advances in life so, ignoring the obvious sentimental angle to her nomination by the Clinton administration in 1993, it was plainly evident that her arrival in Dublin signaled a political turn of events.
This was to be the case.
Kennedy Smith was far more the White House ambassador than the State Department's and there were feathers ruffled in the latter establishment as she enthusiastically set about shoring up the administration's groundbreaking policies on Northern Ireland, and sometimes in it.
The tensions broke to the surface on more than one occasion, not least when Raymond Seitz, a former US ambassador to London, accused Kennedy Smith of being an "ardent apologist" for the IRA in his memoirs.
This was a most undiplomatic attack but it was also a reminder that Dublin and London, though only an hour's flight apart, might as well be Pyongyang and Seoul when it comes to Washington's ambassadorial selections.
There were no such accusations of alleged ardent misbehaviour during Richard Egan's 15-month tenure.
But there have been suggestions that he was frustrated by limitations being placed on his daily job.
Once the Bush administration settled into Washington, it was quick to hand back primary responsibility for Northern Ireland to the State Department – with all the discipline that implied for an ambassador in a town like Dublin.
Unlike Ms Kennedy Smith, the border was a real frontier for Egan. It was doubtless difficult for the man to knuckle down to the daily diplomatic grind and the reality of being subordinate to policies drawn up thousands of miles away.
Certainly it would have been quite a change for a man used to running his own multi-billion dollar corporation.
No complete surprise then that he headed back to his native Massachusetts just before Christmas.
Mr Egan, who is 67, cited 'personal reasons' for leaving the job.
Various reports have stated that Egan tendered his resignation to the Bush administration because he was frustrated with the limitations of his diplomatic job.
The Boston Globe reported that Mr Egan had been frustrated by the many administrative duties he faced while being left out of important discussions about peace and jobs in Ireland.
"He felt he was doing a lot of things that weren't as productive as they could have been and felt a little frustrated," Roger Marino,
who co-founded the EMC data storage company with Egan in 1979, told the Globe.
"His capabilities to do good
are endless, and yet he was
in a non-productive role."
That doesn't say much for
the state of the Dublin ambassadorship right now.
Mr Egan's successor will either be a similar business figure who has contributed large sums of money to the Bush campaign camp, or perhaps a more political figure who will be required to play up the Bush administration's role in the search for peace in Northern Ireland – a Bush version of Ms Kennedy Smith.
Ray Flynn, former mayor of Boston and US ambassador to the Vatican, said that the White House had been in contact with him to discuss the kind of individual who might succeed Mr Egan.
"It depends on whether or not they want to send another business figure who contributed to the Bush campaign, or someone who is more political and close to the Irish-American community," Flynn said.
Mr Flynn said he believes that the decision on a successor could be influenced by how the Bush administration wants to be viewed by Irish-American voters
in the context of the 2004 presidential election.
If the election comes into the decision process the new ambassador will be required to be noticed back in the US and that raises some interesting possibilities. A former politician might be selected, or perhaps a politicised business figure.
Once the individual is named,
confirmation by the Senate follows. The entire process could take weeks, or even months.
Presumably someone is keeping
the Phoenix Park pad aired in the meantime.
