Some 30 ministerial aides have been appointed by the Government to ensure Ministers are not “captured” by departments,
THE SELECTION of business journalist Kathleen Barrington as Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton’s special adviser means all Cabinet members have now chosen senior advice-giving personnel.
Ms Barrington, a Sunday Business Post contributor and columnist, is set to join the elite rank in the labyrinthine structure of employees who assist Government Ministers.
Special advisers operate as watchmen for their Ministers, monitoring developments within the departments and trying to ensure the agreed programme of work is managed effectively, while offering advice on policy or media relations.
They gather for weekly meetings, bringing a political perspective to the apolitical agenda pursued by Civil Service personnel. At all costs, observers say, they must be alert to the danger of Ministers being “captured” by departments.
For the first time since the early 1990s, programme managers were not appointed by the new Coalition. But many in political circles assume that Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s former chef de cabinet Mark Kennelly and Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore’s chief adviser in opposition Mark Garrett are acting as de facto programme managers.
Almost all special adviser contracts have now been finalised. Each Minister is entitled to appoint two special advisers. In most cases, one special adviser deals with policy matters and the other with media.
This comes in addition to extensive Civil Service support for press and policy matters within departments and the centralised Government Press Service, along with separate party press offices.
No limit has been set on the number of advisers available to the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.
Salary packages for special advisers reached giddy heights in the boom years, and under the last administration were as high as €188,640 for taoiseach Brian Cowen’s programme manager and foremost special adviser Joe Lennon.
New Department of Finance guidelines stipulate special advisers’ pay should be brought into line with the first point of the salary scale applying to standard Principal Officer positions in the Civil Service.
The five-point scale ranges from €80,051 to €92,672.
Higher salaries are allowed in circumstances where the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has sanctioned an increased rate with the agreement of the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan.
Only five of the 30 special advisers appointed so far have clearly been identified as earning €80,051 in answers provided by Ministers to Dáil questions, while at least seven earn more than €92,672.
Salaries for Mr Gilmore’s special advisers have been finalised recently, with Mr Garrett being paid €168,000. Colm O’Reardon, Labour’s former policy director and brother of TD Aodhán Ó Ríordáin, earns €155,000.
Mr Kenny has four special advisers, two of whom earn €80,051. Mr Kennelly earns €168,000, as does Fine Gael’s former economic adviser Andrew McDowell.
Former chief executive of Greencore USA Fergal Leamy has been appointed on a salary of €130,000 to advise Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney.
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has appointed Ronan O’Brien, who advised Ruairí Quinn when he was leader of the Labour Party, as his special adviser on a salary of €114,000.
Mr O’Brien was director of communications and marketing at Chartered Accountants Ireland.
Working for Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte are Simon Nugent, former chief executive of the Irish Travel Agents’ Association, on €97,200, and Labour’s former legal adviser, Finbarr O’Malley, on €83,337.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has appointed the long-serving Irish Independent education editor, John Walshe, to assist him in formulating future educational policy on a salary of €92,672 and former broadcast journalist Deirdre Grant as his director of communications on €86,604.
While Ministers of State are not expected to appoint advisers, except in Government-approved exceptional circumstances, “Super Junior” Minister Willie Penrose, is entitled to appoint two.
He has appointed unsuccessful Labour general election candidate Aidan Culhane as a special adviser on a salary in line with principal officers. Mr Culhane, who was TD Alex White’s running mate, will work for the Minister of State for Housing and Planning at the Department of the Environment after stepping down as a Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown county councillor on June 13th.
Meanwhile, Mark Costigan, spokesman for former minister for health Mary Harney, has been appointed press adviser to Ms Harney’s successor, Dr James Reilly.
Mr Reilly’s second special adviser is Sean Faughnan, a former Fine Gael official who worked on the party’s Fair Care plan. Both men are paid within the advised bands, as are Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald’s advisers Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, Fine Gael’s former legal adviser, and Marion Mannion.
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan is being advised by his long-serving aide Mary Kenny on a salary of €83,337, while Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has appointed Claire Langton on the first point of the advised scale.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has appointed Thomas Cooney and Jane Lehane and Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar has appointed former Fine Gael press officer Nick Miller and Brian Murphy.
Former journalist and director of public affairs with the Arts Council, Seán Mac Cárthaigh, is working to Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs Jimmy Deenihan, whose second adviser is retired school teacher Jim Kenny.
Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton is being advised on policy matters by former Fine Gael communications director Ciarán Conlon and his press adviser is his former assistant Conor Quinn.
Special advisers appointed: Who the are and what they earn
Taoiseach Enda Kenny
Mark Kennelly €168,000
Andrew McDowell €168,000
Angela Flanagan €80,051
Paul O’Brien €80,051
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Eamon Gilmore
Mark Garrett €168,000
Colm O’Reardon €155,000
Jean O’Mahony €80,051–€98,424
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney
Fergal Leamy €130,000
Áine Kilroy €80,051
Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Jimmy Deenihan
Seán Mac Cárthaigh - not available
Jim Kenny.................“in line with the guidelines set down by Government on staffing ministerial offices”
Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Frances Fitzgerald
Jennifer Carroll MacNeill €80,051–€92,672
Marion Mannion €80,051–€92,672
Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte
Simon Nugent €97,200
Finbarr O’Malley €83,337
Minister for Education and Skills Ruairí Quinn
John Walshe €92,672
Deirdre Grant €86,604
Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government Phil Hogan:
Claire Langton €80,051
Minister for Finance Michael Noonan
Mary Kenny €83,337
Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin
Ronan O’Brien €114,000
Anne Byrne €83,337
Minister for Health Dr James Reilly
Mark Costigan €80,051–€92,672
Sean Faughnan...€80,051–€92,672
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton
Ciarán Conlon Not available
Conor Quinn €80,051
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter
Thomas Cooney €80,051–€98,424
Jane Lehane €80,051–€98,424
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton
Kathleen Barrington Not available
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar
Nick Miller......... “in accordance with rates approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform”.
Brian Murphy.... “in accordance with rates approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform”.
Government Chief Whip Paul Kehoe
Mark O’Doherty - not available
Super Junior Willie Penrose:
Aidan Culhane.......... in line with Civil Service principal officer position
