Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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772. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport if he will provide the saving to the Exchequer if all his special advisers and those of his Ministers of State were capped at the first point on the Principal Officer pay scale. [36522/13]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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There are two Special Advisers in my Department. If their pay was capped at the first point on the Principal Officer Scale there would be a net saving of less than €16,000 per annum to the Exchequer. 

As the Deputy is aware, both Special Advisers had their pay cut as of the 1st of July 2013 as part of the Haddington Road Agreement. In stark contrast, as the Deputy will also be aware, Special Advisers in the Northern Ireland Executive will see their pay bands increase on the 1st of August 2013, following on from a previous increase in April 2012.