Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In the meantime, the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, is taking on the role of de-facto Whip of the Independent Alliance and he is now representing the Independent Alliance on the Business Committee. Previously that function had been carried out by Deputy Canney. There is no written or formal agreement with Deputy Canney but he is continuing to support the Government and we assist him as best we can on a case-by-case basis, as is the case with other Independent Members who support the Government.

When it comes to advisers for Ministers of State, that is also done on a case-by-case basis. The Minister of State has to make a request. That request is then considered by me and the Minister for Finance and is approved, if warranted. In some cases, Ministers of State are managing very large budgets. The Minister of State, Deputy Jim Daly, has a budget of over €1 billion, for example. People can see the level of demand that is on his time. While it gets a lot of criticism, in general the adviser system works well in Government and it is important to have that intermediary between Ministers and the Civil Service for lots of different reasons.

Deputy Harty is assisted by Government through the political co-ordinator of the Independent Ministers, that is, Deputies Naughten and Zappone. Deputy Harty is part of that group and-----

See this speech in context