Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The only change is the most recently filled vacancy, namely, the special adviser with responsibility for co-ordinating work between all the Ministers of State who was appointed in the past month. Other than the Chief Whip, no other Minister of State has an adviser.

The rates of pay total €858,846. Other than benchmarking, there has been no review or alteration of the rates and there has been no other change in personnel. Therefore, there should be no reason for the position to change.

There are two aspects to the conditions of appointment. The Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act applies to special advisers. That covers their positions in the Civil Service and allowed those advisers to remain in office when the appointing Government left office. However, that has now been excluded. It has not been used in the last decade but it had been used in the past. That Act was changed and they cannot do that now.

There are some changes in the proposals about the code of conduct for special advisers. A new Civil Service code of standards and behaviour was approved by the Government earlier this year. Apart from the provisions relating to civil servants and politics, provision has also been made in the code to include its applicability to the posts of Government press secretary, deputy Government press secretary, special advisers and special assistants in Ministers' offices. I cannot recall exactly what the conditions are but I will circulate a note to Deputy Rabbitte on what changes have been made. I believe it dealt with the issue of a gap from the time they can leave to taking up a position in a sensitive area.

With regard to staff coming from Government Departments and from the private sector, the rule of thumb, although it must be agreed with the Department of Finance and is not always adhered to, is that an increase of roughly 10% is given. However, it is a matter to be agreed between the line Minister and the Minister for Finance. That would apply equally in the public sector as it would in the private sector.

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