Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 1: To ask the Taoiseach the duties and responsibilities of the special political advisers as appointed by him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39758/05]

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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Question 2: To ask the Taoiseach the duties and responsibilities of special political advisers appointed by him; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6396/06]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 1 and 2 together.

There are six special advisers appointed by me. There has been no increase in their number since I took office. Under the direction of the programme manager, the primary function of the advisers is to monitor, facilitate and help secure the achievement of Government objectives and to ensure effective co-ordination in the implementation of the programme for Government. They are also tasked with giving me advice and keeping me informed on a wide range of issues, including business, financial, economic, political, administrative and media matters and performing such other functions as may be directed by me from time to time.

Each of the advisers liaises with a number of Departments and acts as a point of contact in my office for Ministers and their advisers. My advisers attend meetings of Cabinet committees and cross-departmental teams relevant to their responsibilities. They also liaise, on my behalf, with organisations and interest groups outside of Government.

In addition, a number of my advisers have specific responsibilities in speech drafting. My programme manager meets other ministerial advisers on a weekly basis. He monitors and reports to me on progress in implementing the programme for Government.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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According to the Taoiseach's reply he has a programme manager, a special adviser and three other special advisers. Is that correct?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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There are six.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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There are six, including the programme manager to the Tánaiste and so on. In terms of their salary scales, the first four cost €513,000, and good luck to them. When the Taoiseach states that their duties are partly to advise him on a wider range of issues, it seems strange that none of his political advisers brought up the matter of the former Minister of State, Deputy Callely, being removed from office.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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That matter does not arise.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Good, sound political advice might have led the Taoiseach in a different direction. I am not privy, of course, to conversations the Taoiseach might have had with these people who cost a half a million euro, but he could have gone to any street in his constituency and got very clear advice for nothing as to when, how and where he might site a successor. Is the Taoiseach happy with the range of issues on which this quadrant of advisers is available to him? Does he consider that they fulfil their duties and functions properly, as laid out in their respective contracts?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have one special adviser, a programme manager and four others. One of the advisers liaises with the Ministers of State. That adviser's role relates to them, given that Ministers of State do not have advisers. The total salaries of all advisers is €974,122.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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That is €1 million. They must give good advice.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am satisfied with the work. Between them, they cover the entire range of Departments, with three or four each. They liaise with Ministers and Ministers of State as well as groups inside and outside the various Departments. This involves a range of meetings and I am satisfied with the work they do.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I commended the Tánaiste on the speed with which the Government published the report commissioned by the HSE into the provision of children's hospital facilities in Dublin, in terms of the move from Temple Street, the Mater and so on. When they consult the Ministers and the Ministers of State, do the programme managers and advisers encourage them to bring reports to Cabinet for quick publication? The Minister for Education and Science, for instance, said there was an information deficit at the heart of the education system, yet half a dozen reports have been lying on her desk for a number of months which have not been published. In terms of their advice to the Taoiseach, as Head of Government, is it not appropriate that they should follow the example flagged by the children's hospital issue, for example, and allow for early publication of these reports? They are not secret and are not concerned with sensitive tragedies or whatever. There is no reason they should be kept back——

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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That does not arise out of this question.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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It does.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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No, the Deputy cannot go into detail.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Ceann Comhairle cannot stop me because——

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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It is a general question.

Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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In other words, say nothing.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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It is on a wider range of issues.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Taoiseach said these special advisers advise him on a wide range of issues.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Chair can accept a question on the reports, but not detailed questions that should be addressed elsewhere.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I am asking about a wide range of issues, and the Ceann Comhairle appears to think, when he comes here on Tuesdays, that he has to concoct some method to prevent legitimate questions being asked.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy is well aware——

Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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It looks that way.

Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I know some of the Taoiseach's advisers and they are very good people. In the interests of efficiency in Government and of giving the public information contained in reports that are locked away in Departments, do these advisers urge Ministers to publish reports quickly because the people would like to know what is in them? That is a fair question, which by any standards the Ceann Comhairle cannot rule out of order.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Chair will allow that but the Deputy cannot go into detail.

Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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We are getting there.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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I agree with Deputy Kenny that reports should be published quickly where issues of confidentiality are not involved, as is normally the case. There was an urgent reason the report he mentioned should be published quickly because it was holding up the decision on the release of the development of the hospital. It was correct that it was published immediately to allow for consultation and the health sector to input its views on the report.

Sometimes reports are held back for consultation or action but usually reports are published quickly. The normal procedure with the parts of the NESC and ESRI reports that go to my Department is that we bring them to the next Government meeting. We clear them in Cabinet or we bring them to it for information, as all reports do not necessarily require clearance. We then publish them and have the consultation process. It is the same with any of the other reports or research related to social partnership, which we circulate to the various social partners as soon as they are ready and publish them.

Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)
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The reply from the Taoiseach is, effectively, the same reply he gave on 18 October 2005. No new information has been provided to the Dáil. The only way new information can be elicited is by way of supplementary question so I hope the Ceann Comhairle will allow me to ask three questions.

Will the Taoiseach be more specific about the type of work and responsibilities given to his advisers? He needs to be a little more specific if we are to understand exactly what "helping to secure the achievement of Government objectives" means. Are special advisers involved in focus group work? A report on 30 January in The Irish Times gave a figure in the region of €1 million across a number of parties. Is that type of work part of the responsibility of advisers?

Are the Taoiseach's advisers based in this country or are any based overseas? I understand that the former adviser, Mr. Peter McDonagh, lives abroad but his services have been retained. Will the Taoiseach outline Mr. McDonagh's responsibilities and the cost of same?

The Taoiseach mentioned a figure of €974,400. Does he believe there should be specific and published guidelines for the work of special advisers and, perhaps, also a legislative base given that it is a fairly costly service? It is only fair to taxpayers that there would be some level of accountability. For example, do special advisers deal with constituency work? One can ask how much of this is properly the work of an adviser and, given that it is taxpayers' money, should we be more specific than simply saying the work of advisers is to secure the achievement of Government objectives?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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One of the special advisers is a programme manager and another co-ordinates directly with Ministers of State. Each of the special advisers has responsibility for a number of Departments and liaises with them on items of the Cabinet agenda and issues that are working through sub-committees of Cabinet. They also deal with groups that wish to make representations to me and with areas where there are difficulties across Departments in progressing issues. That is the kind of work they are doing. They are linked directly to Departments. They are not involved in political work such as focus groups or in party headquarters.

Mr. McDonagh ceased duty in 2001 and he has not worked as a political adviser to Government since then. He took up a post in the Czech Republic, to which I think Deputy Sargent referred. He possibly keeps in contact with people in party headquarters but has nothing to do with the advisers.

We dropped the old system whereby every Minister had both programme managers and advisers. The co-ordination role of the four advisers involves effectively undertaking what was previously undertaken by special advisers and programme managers when every Minister had them. They liaise with Ministers and Departments to carry out this role across the 15 Departments, work which more than takes up their time and efforts.

The legislative base for advisers is in the Public Service Management Act 1997, section 11(1) of which makes provision for special advisers. It was also covered in the Public Service Management (Recruitment and Appointments) Act 2004. They are fully governed by compliance with the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I agree with Deputy Kenny about the helpfulness of the Taoiseach's political advisers. However, they must have been on holidays over the last few weeks or the Taoiseach slipped off the leash because he is not as sure-footed as he used to be. There must be some explanation for it.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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They do not all come from north Dublin.

Billy Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Obviously not.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Is there an overlap between the political advisers and staff in constituency offices? There are eight people in the Taoiseach's constituency office at a cost of €250,000 and there are 82 staff employed in Ministers' constituency offices. Coming from this side of the House, one feels that it is not that difficult to get the name of a legendary constituency worker if one has eight people to back one up. Is there an overlap between the political and constituency office staffing? The Taoiseach tells us that the communications unit is basically a Civil Service function. Why is greater confidence not placed in the Civil Service, as opposed to excessively staffing constituency offices, which seems to be the case at the moment? Nobody objected when there were a few people in ministerial constituency offices but 82 staff appears to be excessive.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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There is no overlap between advisers and constituency office staff. Practically all the people in my constituency office, with the possible exception of one junior person, are civil servants. Quite a few of the staff in a constituency office work on personal computers and carry out filing work so they would not be engaged in constituency work in terms of contacts. There is no overlap between the advisers who are working across Departments and people who work in constituency offices.

Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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Would the Taoiseach agree that employing six advisers costing just under €1 million per annum is exorbitant and excessive? When one combines this with the Taoiseach's other personal staff, it appears that an Arabian sheikh would hardly have such a large retinue as the Taoiseach now has advising him at every turn. Public sector workers are constantly berated in the private press about benchmarking. How does the Taoiseach benchmark the work and success of his advisers? Has he a particular standard by which he measures the quality of the advice received by him? Do they advise other Ministers and, speaking of benchmarking, do they carry responsibility for some of the debacles in which the Government has been involved such as the nursing home fees, electronic voting and PPARS? Given the cost of these advisers, why were these issues not flagged a long time ago, which would have saved a lot of public money? Perhaps then they would have earned the €1 million.

Whose idea was it that the Taoiseach should tell the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, through the medium of Clare local radio, that she should spend more time in west Clare, rather than someone informing her in person?

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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That question does not arise under the questions tabled.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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One adviser gone.

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, there are far fewer advisers and programme managers now than was the case previously. Both numerically and cost-wise, the numbers involved are now much lower, but I will not go into that matter. The people who remain in my Department co-ordinate the work which would have been carried out by advisers and programme managers in each Department. They deal with a number of Departments and liaise with Ministers, Ministers of State and my Department on the range of issues across each Department. A high proportion of the 40 or so advisers who work in the system are seconded from the Civil Service. Compared with the past, very few people come from outside the Civil Service. By and large, the system works efficiently.

The salaries of these people are directly linked to Civil Service grades. The posts are analysed and examined in the same way as public servants, including assistant principal officers or principal officers. They are linked to a grade and not dealt with in isolation.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Our hearts go out to the unfortunate, under-paid and over-stressed advisers, especially since they were not even consulted in the context of the recent crisis when they could have been very useful. It begs the question in what type of work they are involved. Do they deputise for Ministers? Do they attend meetings instead of Ministers? Do they do so at home or abroad? To what extent do they contact various agencies outside their respective Departments and the Oireachtas? For example, do they contact national or local radio stations or newspapers or advise on editorial policy? What did they do over the past month for €1 million, for example?

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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In a given period, legislation must be prepared across a range of Departments and there are ongoing meetings of Cabinet sub-committees with various items on the agenda. For example, on the cross-departmental team dealing with infrastructural issues, an adviser would work with the Minister and the officials in my Department to try to co-ordinate efforts on items on the agenda, including infrastructural and transport Bills. They do not work outside the country, except in the case of my adviser on European issues who works on European Council papers, data on foreign trips or visits of delegations to this country. Other than that, these people work in Government Buildings. They are confined to dealing with matters on the Government's agenda. They do not deputise for Ministers but rather liaise between Ministers and Departments. They co-ordinate the effort to keep the process of Government work moving as swiftly as possible by ensuring items on the programme for Government are moved forward.