Government breaches public sector moratorium to hire advisers

The Government sought and was granted permission to breach its own public-service staffing moratorium to hire public relations workers within the Department of the Taoiseach.

Documents released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act show Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin gave approval for the three staff to be hired.

Two were taken on to provide the Government with an updated communications unit to monitor the media in the internet age, while another, Andrea Pappin, who previously worked on Ireland's EU presidency, was retained to help sell the Government's jobs message.

The other two members of staff were also kept on after the EU presidency and replaced others who left the communications unit.

They now sit alongside the five press officers already in the department and another two people who work on the merrionstreet.ie website, which provides a Government news service.

'Sea change'

A submission from the Department of the Taoiseach to the Department of Public Expenditure last June sa

id: “The Communications Unit was established as part of the Government Information Service in 1997, as a central news monitoring service providing news updates, synopsis of current affairs programmes and transcripts for the department on a cross-departmental basis.”

It said it was initially staffed by six people working in shifts, and was established in a time before the "sea change" in how news is consumed, as well as before Twitter, Facebook and the "plethora" of news websites.

“It is now proposed to meet the challenge of a fluid and ever-changing media environment by establishing a communications service that is flexible, adaptable and relevant to the needs of Government.”

The unit was reduced to three people by the time the permission was sought by the Department of the Taoiseach.

The two new editorial assistants were hired on one-year contracts to trial the new unit.

Sanction granted

It was separately “proposed to extend the contract of Ms

Pappin (currently assistant Government press secretary) to work on the Government’s jobs strategy”.

Ms Pappin worked as a spokesperson for the Irish EU presidency in the first half of last year and was previously a Labour Party adviser.

She was given a salary of €73,600 which could rise with increments in her new role.

At the direction of Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin, officials in his department replied to the request from the Taoiseach’s department.

Sanction was granted for the three positions on the basis that the posts were “vital”, every effort was made to redeploy staff and “all related expenditure” came from within existing resources, with staffing levels also remaining with the Department of the Taoiseach’s employment control framework.