Government's 64 special advisors to cost taxpayer €15m
Party leaders Leo Varadkar, Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie
Over €15m will be spent on paying the wages of more than 60 political and media advisors over the course of this Government.
The 64 advisers will be employed at a cost of over €3m per year, slightly more than the last Government. This includes 10 advisors who will work for junior ministers after the Cabinet's controversial approval of the posts this week.
The pay figure does not include pension contributions or any other benefits.
The highest-paid advisors will be in Micheál Martin and Leo Varadkar's offices, with chiefs of staff each paid on the deputy secretary pay scale, which is set at €171,263.
The three Government leaders have employed an unpreceded number of aides and advisers, with Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar appointing six each and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan taking on eight.
This does not include the Government's press secretary and two deputy press secretaries, who are also political appointments.
Labour leader Alan Kelly branded the large number of appointments made by the three party leaders as obscene, unnecessary, and ridiculous; though he added: "It's understandable to have a certain number of advisors, and I have no issues with advisors for senior ministers."
The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has so far refused to make a full list of advisers to Government public as some have yet to be formally approved by Cabinet, despite beginning their roles over the summer.
A department spokesperson said the full list will be published as soon as those contracts are signed, but added that the appointment of individual special advisors is entirely a matter for each respective minister and minister of state.
Each minister is entitled to hire two advisers.
The Government had initially agreed to introduce a pooled system of advisers for ministers of state, but that was overturned when a number of junior ministers "made the case" that they needed their own staff. As a result, the Cabinet this week agreed that 10 junior ministers would get advisers.
Mr Kelly said no ministers of state had advisers in the government of 2011-2016, of which Labour was a part.
"Advisors to junior ministers, except for a very specific reason, are also unwarranted and wrong," he said. "We're now in the middle of one of the worst economic situations. And yet this Government has decided to take on advisers for junior ministers — that is totally wrong."
He said he has "no issue" with senior ministers having two advisers.
Pointing to health minister Stephen Donnelly who has employed two former journalists, Mr Kelly said "there is very little or no criteria" behind the positions.
"I'd much prefer if at least one of them was in some way a specialist," he said. "Similarly, across other departments, I would like to see at least one of the two advisers assigned to senior ministers actually have experience or relevance in the area in which the minister is working.
"There is no interview process, there is no criteria. It seems to be either people who are party members or former journalists, or PR people."
Sinn Féin's public expenditure spokesperson Mairead Farrell said: "We now have a grouping of three Taoisigh with over 20 advisors. Everyone accepts that there are advisors, but there used to be a Taoiseach and a Tánaiste. Now you have a triumvirate of Taoisigh.
"Over 20 is a ludicrous amount, and just shows how out of touch this Government is. We're telling people we can't afford to keep them on €350 a week on the pandemic unemployment payment; counties are going into lockdown, putting more jobs at risk; and at the same time we're hiring huge amounts of advisors.
"The fact is that this Government doesn't seem to get what people are going through."
