Since I took up office, I have appointed on a contract basis for my term of office a special adviser, Mr. Frank Lahiffe, a press adviser, Mr. Tom Rowley, a personal secretary, Ms Mary Browne, and a personal assistant, Mr. Bobby Holland. The above named staff were appointed on 30 September 2004. The salaries for these staff are as follows. Special adviser €87,247, which is the principal officer standard scale, press adviser €93,599, which is the principal officer higher scale and personal secretary €38,880. My personal assistant is on secondment from the Department of Education and Science. That Department will recoup from my Department on an annual basis the cost of a replacement teacher's salary, allowances, PRSI contributions and superannuation contributions. This will be approximately €31,800.
My special adviser and my personal secretary are members of the non-established State employees pension scheme. My personal assistant is a member of the national school teachers superannuation scheme. This Department pays a private pension contribution of 9% of Mr. Rowley's salary. The Deputy should be aware that the number of political appointments made by me compares with 13 made by the Minister for Social Welfare in 1992-97, which included four for the Minister of State in the same period. There is now no Minister of State attached to my Department.