Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question and congratulate her on her appointment and look forward to working with her.

On the commencement of every Dáil, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issues guidelines setting out the arrangements for the staffing of ministerial offices. The guidelines for the 33rd Dáil currently await Government approval.

Appointments to the position of special adviser are made in accordance with section 11 of the Public Service Management Act 1997 which states that the Government may by order, appoint special advisers to the Minister or Minister of State who is assigned to a Department or to a scheduled office provided that the number of special advisers shall not in the case of a Minister, other than the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste or the leader of a political party registered in the register of political parties, be greater than two, in the case of a Minister of State who regularly attends meetings of the Government be greater than two, and in the case of any other Minster of State be greater than one. All appointments to the position of special adviser require a Government order to be made.

Special advisers to Ministers and Ministers of State who regularly attend Cabinet are to be placed on the principal officer - standard - PPC scale, which is currently €87,325 - €101,114.

Special advisers to Ministers of State are to be placed on the assistant principal officer standard scale, which is currently €67,659 - €78,816. While appointments should normally be on the first point of the scale, Secretaries General have delegated sanction to approve any increment on the scale where they are satisfied that this is justified. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform will publish the rates payable on its website.

The above restrictions on salary scale do not apply to special advisers to the Taoiseach or Tánaiste. The individual pay rates will also be published on the website. At this stage, no special advisers have been formally appointed by the Government. This process will start once the guidelines have been approved by Government and details will be published on the website of my Department.

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