When Fine Gael deputies Bernard Allen and Bernard Durkan asked, by way of written Dail question this week, for details of the appointments to the offices of the Taoiseach and Tanaiste the answers were duly forthcoming. What Bertie Ahern and Mary Harney also did, however, was compare their appointments with those made under the previous administration.
The Taoiseach said the total number of unestablished civil servants attached to his department was 12 compared to 25 in the last government. The Tanaiste replied that she employed three nonestablished civil servants compared with the eight employed by her predecessor Dick Spring.
Much of the discrepancy arises from the fact that the FF/PD Government took on career civil servants, already on the public payroll, for jobs that were previously done by outside appointees. The current Government press secretary Joe Lennon, for example, came from the Department of Finance, while the previous one, Shane Kenny, came from RTE.