Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Taoiseach for the information. That is some whack of advisers. It is a serious number of them. I can tell the Taoiseach straight up if he were standing where I am, he would be giving out yards about this. In the past, when this issue has been raised, the Taoiseach spoke about how programme managers were brought in 30 or 40 years ago by the Labour Party and others. The proportionality is a bit different. The volume here is incredible.

How many vacancies are there at present? Does the Taoiseach have an adviser on issues surrounding Covid health, public health and the vaccination? Has anybody been brought in? This is not something to which I would have objected, to be honest. I just want to know whether the Taoiseach had anybody who would have helped him on this.

We have seen an awful lot about the issues surrounding the recent appointment of judges and the process by which all of it was done. We have been through it and we will go through it again, I am sure, in the coming weeks and months. With regard to the process by which these advisers put on record all of their communications, will the Taoiseach give the House the assurance that all communications from all advisers who work for the Government are available from the Departments in which they work, are accessible under freedom of information and are in no way hidden?

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