Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

Will the Taoiseach confirm my understanding that political appointees benefit from the same pay rises as Civil Service colleagues, for example, benchmarking and national wage agreements? Is that the case? Will he indicate, from the figures he provided, how many special advisers or programme managers have been employed since the general election of 2002? Is there a code of practice in place with regard to divulging who has been employed by, the Taoiseach and Cabinet members as special advisers? I appreciate the Taoiseach is always quite open——

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