Minister who hit out at civil servant numbers has 10 staff

JUNIOR Enterprise Minister John McGuinness was accused of “hypocrisy” yesterday when it emerged he had 10 staff working in his constituency and private offices despite his recent attack on the civil service.

Mr McGuinness said last week it was “madness” that the public service continues to employ staff “adding more and more people who are almost impossible to let go, and who will in due course be getting inflation-proof salaries and pensions”.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore told the Dáil yesterday that Mr McGuinness employs 10 staff in his constituency and private offices at a cost of almost €70,000 a year.

Mr Gilmore said four ministers in the Department of Enterprise had 46 private and constituency staff between them, at a cost of more than €3 million a year.

Mr McGuinness hit back last night by saying Mr Gilmore had 11 staff, including a special adviser, when he was a junior minister in 1994-1995.

Mr McGuinness said he has four civil servants working for him and the remaining six are “made up of what I’m entitled to as a TD in the guidelines laid down by the Department of Finance”.

He said: “The same guidelines were in place in 1994 when Mr Gilmore was a junior minister.”

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Mary Coughlan has 18 staff at a cost of €1,334,542; Junior Minister for Labour Affairs Billy Kelleher has nine staff costing €449,681; Junior Minister with responsibility for Science and Technology Jimmy Devins has nine staff costing €589,030 per year.

Raising the issue in the Dáil, Mr Gilmore said: “Mr McGuinness, who describes civil servants as unfeathered, plump State hens has 10 civil servants, that makes him a pretty plump State gander.”

Labour’s finance spokeswoman, Joan Burton, quipped, “the chickens are coming home to roost”.