Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail)

Will the Deputy Leader arrange for the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform - public service reform is a misnomer - to come to the House for a debate on jobs for the boys? I do not only refer to public service retirees on good pensions being re-employed at high salary rates, which is a scandal, but also to the various party hacks who have been employed by Ministers on enhanced salaries. A bad precedent was set by the Taoiseach when he arranged for at least nine ministerial advisers to be paid salaries in excess of €93,000, which is the designated salary for the post. He gave the green light for a salary of €127,000 for a former Fine Gael director of communications who had been appointed as special adviser to the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The Taoiseach appointed two top Fine Gael aides as advisers with a salary of €168,000.