Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I did not appreciate that political advisers were subject to benchmarking. Against whom are they benchmarked? What are the criteria? It is a significant increase in six months.

The Taoiseach said the new appointee is responsible for co-ordinating the Ministers of State. Is this a completely new appointment? What does it mean? Does it mean rounding them up every so often and checking what they are doing? I can understand the need for that but there is an additional cost to the taxpayer. Did this emerge from Inchydoney? What gave rise to it? There have been more solo runs by Ministers of State since the Taoiseach appointed this man than occurred before that. I presume this is a political appointment to try to weld the Ministers of State into some kind of cohesive force or to bring the socialist forces together with the neocons. What is the purpose of this appointment?

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