Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the issue of the appointment of special advisers by the Government, particularly by the Taoiseach, who signs all of these orders. Under the Public Service Management Act 1997, the lawful power to appoint special advisers exists in section 11. It has to be done on foot of a Government order and that order takes the form of a statutory instrument which the Taoiseach signs. The issue that arises is that in more than two dozen of those cases, not only did the Taoiseach appoint the special advisers but he backdated their appointment, in some cases by 12 weeks. In the case of all six of his own special advisers, he backdated their appointment.

Where is the lawful power to backdate the appointment of a special adviser?

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When the finance committee raised this issue, on my insistence, with the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, the private secretary replied and said that the Department was seeking advice from the Attorney General's office on whether the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2007 granted the power to make such orders with retrospective effect.

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