Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)

Would the Taoiseach agree that employing six advisers costing just under €1 million per annum is exorbitant and excessive? When one combines this with the Taoiseach's other personal staff, it appears that an Arabian sheikh would hardly have such a large retinue as the Taoiseach now has advising him at every turn. Public sector workers are constantly berated in the private press about benchmarking. How does the Taoiseach benchmark the work and success of his advisers? Has he a particular standard by which he measures the quality of the advice received by him? Do they advise other Ministers and, speaking of benchmarking, do they carry responsibility for some of the debacles in which the Government has been involved such as the nursing home fees, electronic voting and PPARS? Given the cost of these advisers, why were these issues not flagged a long time ago, which would have saved a lot of public money? Perhaps then they would have earned the €1 million.

Whose idea was it that the Taoiseach should tell the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, through the medium of Clare local radio, that she should spend more time in west Clare, rather than someone informing her in person?

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