Government to spend €3m on advisers

THE Government will spend at least €3 million this year on spin-doctors and special advisers, new figures have shown.

The Taoiseach’s bill alone will account for more than €630,000 of this. Bertie Ahern has a programme manager, Gerry Hickey, who earns €195,676 a year, and four special advisers who earn between €87,422 and €115,775 each.

In fact, Mr Hickey’s pay is more than the basic rate of €150,178 afforded to the Taoiseach, but Mr Ahern’s TD salary brings his total earnings to more than €242,000.

Tánaiste Mary Harney’s team will cost the Exchequer more than €490,000. She has a programme manager, Katherine Bulbulia, earning €136,972, and three special advisers who are paid between €110,883 and €129,725.

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin’s three advisers, meanwhile, will cost more than a quarter of a million euro between them this year. Communications Minister Noel Dempsey also has a team of three, costing in excess of €249,000 in total, while the salaries of Transport Minister Martin Cullen’s two advisers will come to almost €210,000.

The total bill, collated from figures supplied to Fine Gael TD Phil Hogan this week, comes to more than €3 million. However, some ministers refused to give the precise salaries of the advisers involved, and the bill does not include personal secretaries or assistants whom they have appointed. Neither does it include the salaries of the Government press secretary and deputy press secretary, which between them top €200,000. This means the true cost to the Exchequer of the Cabinet’s advisers is likely to be much higher than €3 million.

The vast majority of the advisers are not civil servants, but political appointments hand-picked by ministers. They are brought in to offer political advice or to handle the media on behalf of the ministers.

The opposition has repeatedly criticised the amount of money the Government spends on advisers, arguing that many are “political hacks” hired to further their ministers’ interests rather than advance policy.

While the advisers’ salaries are substantial, many would earn more if they working in the private sector. For instance, Colin Hunt, who is programme manager for the Transport Minister, earns €134,948. But it is understood the economist took a substantial pay cut when he left his position as head of research at Goodbody Stockbrokers to work with the minister.