Professor Deiric Ó Broin:

That is a fair point. One could probably look at the model of special advisers to Ministers and their unestablished civil servants. An aspiration could be that they have some sort of technical or policy expertise to bring to the mayor. I still think the issue is about the mayor having control over who they appoint. Dr. O'Malley is right about the mayor being able to appoint all five rather than just one. They can appoint a team of advisers who may bring different skill sets to directly advise the mayor. That might be the way to do it.