Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 287: To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide full details, including salary, of every appointment he has approved since coming into office of special advisers for each Department; the salary cap that is in place with respect to special adviser appointments; the number of appointments he has approved with salary in excess of the cap; if he will provide details of the requests from Ministerial colleagues that he has refused which would have involved breaching the salary cap. [27876/12]

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The current Guidelines on Special Advisors provide, except in the Offices of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste where separate arrangements apply, that they are to be placed on the minimum point of the Principal Officer (standard) scale, which currently runs from €80,051 at the minimum to €92,672 at the maximum.

Remuneration in excess of the minimum point of the Principal Officer (standard) scale has been sanctioned by me in a number of instances based on the business case presented. In the majority of cases this has been based on evidence of higher earnings in the previous employment and the need to secure the appointment of an individual with particular skills and expertise. At all times I have endeavoured to keep exceptions to a minimum and in all cases value for money considerations were uppermost in my mind when approving exceptions to the Guidelines. I would like to add that in a number of cases, Special Advisers have been appointed on substantially reduced salaries compared to what they were earning prior to their appointment. The following table sets out details of Special Advisers.