Let’s look at what special advisers do before we condemn them

TEN years ago, shortly after I had finished a period working as a special adviser to Tom Kitt, who was then Minister of State with responsibility for European Affairs, I was asked by a public affairs magazine to write an article about the purpose and functions of special advisers to ministers.

I dusted down the magazine this week and it struck me how little has changed in terms of public understanding about the role of ministers' political advisers then, as now, very misunderstood and much maligned.

The recent debates generated by the Travers report into the nursing home charges debacle and the Buckley report in January into the Monica Leech contract controversy illustrated how little is known about the way our government and public service operate at senior levels by those outside government.