Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 21 Apr 1994

Vol. 441 No. 7

Written Answers. - Ministerial Staff.

Enda Kenny

Ceist:

56 Mr. E. Kenny asked the Minister for Finance the staff employed in the Office of the Minister of State at the Department of Finance; the reason it is necessary to recruit a further head of staff; and the duties to be performed by this person (details supplied).

Minister for Finance (Mr. B. Ahern)

As I indicated to this House over a year ago, the arrangements agreed by Government for the staffing of the political offices of Ministers and Ministers of State provide that each Minister of State may appoint the following staff: a special adviser; a personal assistant and a personal secretary.

The Minister of State assigned to the Office of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and to my Department has currently in employment only a personal secretary and a personal assistant and had not until recently selected a special adviser — as she has been entitled to do at any time since her appointment. She has, however, recently decided to engage a personal adviser and a person has been selected for appointment to that post. My understanding is that the appointment will not take effect before June next.

I think it important to place on the record of the House certain features which this appointment shares with the generality of outside appointments to the private offices of Ministers and Ministers of State. First, the salary payable is salary prior to employment in such position plus an allowance of 10 per cent subject to specific maximum amounts. That maximum, in the case of a special adviser to a Minister of State, is £32,461 and the remuneration proposed for the selected appointee falls below that figure. Second, all advisers appointed by Ministers and Ministers of State are to be employed under contracts which provide that their term of office is limited to the period during which the office holder by whom they are appointed or selected retains his or her post in the Department or office to which the adviser is assigned. Third, there is not, and has never been, any proposal or intention that the person in question would be employed as an adviser to the Minister of State or otherwise paid out of public funds during the period of the current election campaign for the European Parliament.