Harney keeps €500,000 special advisers

A SCHOOL could be built for the €514,000 a year of taxpayers’ money spent on keeping special advisers for Health Minister Mary Harney, it was claimed in the Dáil yesterday.

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said there is “no longer any justification” for Ms Harney to have a team of advisers, paid for by the Department of the Taoiseach, when she is no longer the leader of a political party or the junior partner in Government.

However, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said Mr Kenny was only raising the issue so he could “get another big picture of himself in the paper”.