Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Is there an overlap between the political advisers and staff in constituency offices? There are eight people in the Taoiseach's constituency office at a cost of €250,000 and there are 82 staff employed in Ministers' constituency offices. Coming from this side of the House, one feels that it is not that difficult to get the name of a legendary constituency worker if one has eight people to back one up. Is there an overlap between the political and constituency office staffing? The Taoiseach tells us that the communications unit is basically a Civil Service function. Why is greater confidence not placed in the Civil Service, as opposed to excessively staffing constituency offices, which seems to be the case at the moment? Nobody objected when there were a few people in ministerial constituency offices but 82 staff appears to be excessive.

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