Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support the Minister. We have been at odds on many issues today, but this is a really important point. I strongly support any initiative in the Government to establish a cabinetsystem whereby senior officials in Departments would be linked to the tenure of a Minister. There should be equal numbers of external advisers adding value and bringing expertise from outside and the existing expertise, of which there is much, in many Departments. I do not want to take from that. The pay of special advisers should be very much linked to the grade of assistant secretary or Secretary General if there is a choice. I know the Minister went "outside the box" in his choice. If a political agenda or programme for Government is to be implemented, this is the way to do it. That is the way it is done in a range of modern democracies and we are very archaic in how we run Departments. There is an hostility to outside expertise, which is bizarre and nonsensical. The Government nevertheless created a hostage to fortune by portraying the issue as if caps were in place; perhaps a lesson has been learned from that. We should value expertise and make it appealing for people to be part of the Government for two, three or five years.