Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Following the last election, there were three, at least, career civil servants who were in the Department of the Taoiseach and formerly had been working in the office of the Tánaiste in the context of the Department of the Taoiseach. They were allocated to assisting in a Civil Service manner. The Taoiseach referred to them on several occasions and to the work they were doing in terms of new politics, the Dáil and, specifically, in regard to Independents who were inclined to support the Government. Are those three civil servants, one of whom is in a senior position, still in post and are there more people working in this area? Also, will the Taoiseach tell us if these staff are in addition to the people referred to by my colleague, Deputy Howlin, who are more traditionally Government advisers who have come in as external advisers from media careers and have previously been advisers to different Governments at different times?

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