Enda Kenny’s meeting with Pope Francis in the Vatican had the hallmarks of a formal state visit, but it felt like an intimate family gathering where strained relations were finally addressed, writes Juno McEnroe

Backroom ministerial media advisers are taking home salaries worth more than €3m a year, despite concerns over the stability of the Government and the limited amount of legislation passed since the general election.

In the 2011 general election, Fine Gael’s famous ‘five-point plan’ was the bedrock of the campaign that saw the party take power with the Labour Party after 14 years in opposition.

Lucinda Creighton has said the Taoiseach and finance minister tried to gag her from publishing remarks about Germany in 2012.

Enda Kenny’s chief of staff, Mark Kennelly, and one other special adviser were both paid €156,380 last year.

The Government mishandled the issue of special advisers’ pay, Ruairi Quinn has admitted.

At least 13 of the Taoiseach’s staff, including the Government press secretary and his deputy, have been given pay rises amounting to over €31,000.

A breach of the pay cap for two special advisers to President Micheal D Higgins had been approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

James Reilly, the health minister, has been accused of hypocrisy after appointing yet another expert on a €164,000-a-year contract to tackle the waiting list and trolley count crisis.

THE coalition parties were accused of looking after their own “party hacks” by appointing supporters to highly paid Government positions.

FINE GAEL has been accused of Fianna Fáil-style political cronyism after details emerged of how Taoiseach Enda Kenny sanctioned a €35,000 pay rise for a key party handler in breach of the Government’s own self-imposed limits on salaries for special advisers.

A SERIES of embarrassing expenditure revelations over the weekend has undermined the credibility of the Government as it prepares to deliver its budget.

ENDA Kenny has defended the appointment of special advisers on six-figure salaries that exceed guidelines set down by his own administration.

The Taoiseach's top two advisors have been awarded salaries of almost €170,000 each, about the same amount of money as that paid to a senior Government Minister.

Athletics Ireland have named the strongest possible teams for next month's Great North Run in Durham.

ALASTAIR CRAGG, who has recently declared for Ireland and made himself available for selection for next month's European cross-country championships, finished second in yesterday's American national collegiate cross-country championships at Indiana State University.