Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

They should not be excluded. I wonder about the quality of the advice given by special advisers in previous Administrations. I do not have a hang-up about special advisers, but there is a real problem with those salary levels. We have had the universal social charge, pension levies and welfare cutbacks, all of which had to be implemented because things are tough and we are all in it together, yet when it comes to this coterie of people, the rule book is thrown out the window. I am not surprised the Minister cannot justify or explain it, because it is beyond any kind of justification. I put it to him again: I do not accept that Ministers could not get the type and quality of advice the Government requires while keeping advisers' salaries within the very generous cap that he himself identified. What will he do about it? Is the answer that he will not do anything about it - that this is the status quo for a minority, and everyone else just has to live with it?

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