Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

That is the key and critical issue because it has been applied in so many areas with devastating consequences for so many ordinary workers yet a situation maintains in the Department of the Taoiseach where a number of special advisers earn such substantial salaries. Can the Taoiseach advise the House if there is still an arrangement between the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Health and Children whereby special advisers to the Minister, Deputy Harney, are provided for and paid by the Department of the Taoiseach following arrangements entered into in the cobbling together of the coalition in the first instance and when she took up responsibility for the health portfolio in the previous Government? How many advisers to the Department of Health and Children are under the aegis of the Department of the Taoiseach and at what cost?

The Taoiseach must take on board the fact that these questions and their tenor is against the backdrop of the €8.50 cut the carers providing-----

See this speech in context