Special advisors: Unprecedented level of political hires
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Minister for Climate Action, Communications Networks and Transport Eamon Ryan. Picture: Julien Behal Photography
The three government leaders have appointed an unprecedented number of special advisers to deal with the media and steer them on policy decisions.
Both Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar have taken on six advisers to assist them, while Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has employed eight. This does not include the government press secretary, Lisa Dee Collery, and the two deputies, Ian Carey and Nick Miller, who are also political appointments.
The attorney general has the authority to appoint an adviser as well.
In total, the Government has taken on 64 special advisers which will cost the taxpayer more than €3m a year.
The pay scale for advisers starts at €87,325 and goes up to €101,114 excluding pension and other entitlements. However, salaries above this have been sanctioned and, in the past, granted when specific cases were made.
Those working for ministers of state are placed on the assistant principal officer scale and earn between €67,659 and €78,816.
Special advisers, or Spads, are directly employed by the minister they work for and come and go with the government of the day.
However, the number employed has been on the rise with each successive government and with it their pay bill.
Under the previous government, 60 media and policy advisers were recruited by the taoiseach, tánaiste, ministers and some junior ministers.
The recent decision of cabinet to allocate 10 special advisers to junior ministers has also caused consternation on the opposition benches.
Mr Martin's government had initially agreed that ministers of state would share a pool of advisers and would not be appointed their own personal staff member.
This caused fury among some junior ministers who "made the case" that they deserved their own adviser due to the complexity and workload of their portfolio.
As a result, the cabinet this week rowed back on its decision and signed off on 10 specially allocated advisers to named junior ministers.
Doing a three-way deal to secure another term in office resulted in the loss of cabinet positions for Fine Gael. However, every effort has been made to ensure that those who worked behind the scenes in the previous administration did not lose out.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has retained almost an identical background team as he had as Taoiseach, with Sarah O'Neill who previously worked with Richard Bruton also coming on board. John Carroll, who had been a key background player and one of Mr Varadkar's closest aides, has taken over as Fine Gael general secretary following the retirement of Tom Curran this month.
His departure has allowed for the transfer of Matt Lynch, who previously worked with Simon Coveney. Brian Murphy, Philip O'Callaghan, Clare Mungovan, and Jim D'Arcy are all still part of the Tánaiste's inner circle.
Nick Miller, who was government press secretary in the last administration, has now become deputy press secretary.
Angela Flanagan is perhaps the greatest Fine Gael survivor. She worked as an adviser to Enda Kenny in the 2011 administration and has also been kept on by Mr Varadkar.
Patrick Cluskey who worked for Richard Bruton, has now gone to work with Justice Minister Helen McEntee as a policy adviser. Denise Duffy has been taken on by Hildegarde Naughten having worked with Regina Doherty.
Ed Brophy, who started out with former tánaiste Joan Burton, and Deborah Sweeney remain on with Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe.
Former Cork city councillor Laura McGonigle is an adviser to Simon Coveney.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has assembled a kitchen cabinet of people who have acted as trusty background confidantes during his time in opposition.
These include long-time aides Deirdre Gillane, who becomes chief of staff, and former press secretary Pat McParland, who has now taken on the role of deputy chief of staff.
Alan Ahearne has been taken on as an economic adviser, while Kevin Dillon, Grainne Weld, and Diarmuid Lynch are also part of Mr Martin's most trusted team.
Ciara Shaughnessy, who worked in the Fianna Fáil press office, has been elevated to the role of press adviser with Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien.
Public Expenditure Minister Michael McGrath has taken on Kevin Barret, who previously worked as an economic adviser to the party along with Grant Sweetnam.
Education Minister Norma Foley has employed Áine Doyle on the policy side of things.
Among Eamon Ryan's appointees is former Green Party staffer Dónall Geoghegan, He worked as a political coordinator for the independent ministers in the last government, serving as a political manager and advisor for ministers Katharine Zappone and Sean Canney.
Alongside Mr Geoghegan in the Green section of government advisors is Anna Conlon, Leitrim GAA player, who is a former assistant to Mr Ryan.
Party researchers John McDonald and Eamonn Fahey have also been elevated from Mr Ryan's staff to government advisors.
Children's Minister Roderic O'Gorman has appointed Green Party general secretary Eoin Wilson, who is a former parliamentary assistant to Social Democrats founder Catherine Murphy, as well as Tom Shephard.
Business consultant and organic gardener Stiofán Nutty has joined up with Pippa Hackett, while Tanya Warren has been taken on by the party's deputy leader Catherine Martin.
Ian Carey who once worked for the Irish Daily Mail and had been in the Green Party press office has now become deputy government press secretary.
A number of journalists have been recruited by all three parties, among them former Irish Times deputy political editor Fiach Kelly, whose departure from journalism was a significant shock. He has now gone to work with Justice Minister Helen McEntee
Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has taken on former Sunday Business Post health correspondent Susan Mitchell and Collette Sexton, who worked for a number of newspapers as well as PR firm.
Juno McEnroe, who was a reporter with the Irish Examiner for 15 years, has moved on to work with Catherine Martin.
Other journalists who previously left the industry and have been retained include Niall O'Connor, the former Irish Independent political correspondent who has taken up a role with Heather Humphreys; Sarah Bardon, who covered politics for the Irish Times, has remained on with Minister Simon Harris, and Paul Melia, who wrote for the Irish Independent before going to work with former Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy, has now transferred to Hildegarde Naughton's team.
Sam Griffin is another who came from the Irish Independent stable and now works with Jack Chambers.
Former RTÉ journalist Caroline Murphy, who acted as press adviser to former justice minister Charlie Flanagan, has recently gone to work with super junior minister Pippa Hackett, while Margaret Ward, who also worked in RTÉ, has joined Eamon Ryan.
Chris Donoghue, who started out in radio, has stayed on with Simon Coveney.
In a country where billions of euro is spent on services each year, a €3 million a year outlay on 60 senior staff may feel like a small amount.
Indeed in any major company, you would consider it a reasonable and justifiable spend.
But the issue of special advisors in Ireland has never been solely about being justified in a technical sense. This was never more clearly illustrated than in a week when the Pandemic Unemployment Payment was cut and the same day a slew of advisor positions for junior ministers announced.
In a political climate where optics and transparency have never been as keenly prized, the government was at once seen to be taking from those most hard hit by the pandemic at the same time as giving jobs to their own inner circle, with the taxpayer picking up the tab.
But the issue is not just about optics, it is about the process. There is an acceptance and an expectation among most reasonable people that ministers will have staff. Their briefs are massive, the business of day-to-day government exhaustive and their time is limited. Having someone on hand to parse information, to advise and to manage the diary is, of course, entirely justified.
However, where people find great difficulty is in how these roles are divvied up - in many cases, there is no real advertisement of the jobs, no job description, no awkward questions about strengths and weaknesses. That many of the candidates will come from a pool of party stalwarts or the Venn diagram of journalism and politics also feeds a poor perception of the roles. In reality Ireland, and Irish politics particularly, is a small place and the appointing of known, trusted quantities is unavoidable in the main.
But is that enough? Is it good enough to say that this is just how we do things?
It would be understandable if each and every appointment came with unimpeachable credentials in their field - but this is not always the case.
At a time when those at the very bottom of whatever socio-economic ladder you want to imagine are being asked to do with less for what we're told is the greater good, should we not question at the very least the optics of appointing over another €750,000 worth of advisors? Should we not accept that some anger in Ireland is actually justified?
Another place where Ireland goes awry is in sheer volume. Each Minister is entitled to two special advisors, as well as a secretary and a parliamentary assistant. This, of course, comes with the backing of a junior minister (and now their advisor) as well as - and this is vitally important - the entire civil service. There is ample expertise, at least there should be, backing up all of our politicians in their jobs. The government's argument has been that the role is "essential".
The use of the word essential has taken on a new meaning this year and those who have worked hardest amidst the pandemic will rightly ask why their essential role isn't on a salary scale which ends over six figures. They will ask why none of them has the potential to earn more than the Prime Minister of Finland. They will ask if there is a quantifiable value in other "essential" roles. Because if the roles are essential and worth the outlay, we will in time have the smoothest-running government in the world.
There will be an argument that these advisors are civil servants, private citizens. But their roles rely solely on who is elected, so they aren't quite civil servants in the traditional sense.
And, while their roles are justified, it is just as justified to ask who they are, how they are appointed and whether the taxpayer is getting value for money.
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