Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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23. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the breakdown of the number of special advisers of each Minister as well as the Taoiseach and Tánaiste; the related costs in tabular form.; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31091/22]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware on the commencement of every Dáil, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform issues Government-approved Guidelines setting out the arrangements for the staffing of Ministerial Offices.  

The appointment of individual Special Advisers is a matter for each Government Minister, subject to the terms of the aforementioned Guidelines, although the appointments are also subject to formal Government approval in accordance with Section 11 of the Public Service Management Act 1997.  

My Department maintains a Listing of Special Advisers to the 33^rdDáil once their statutory appointment has fully concluded and is notified to my officials.  This includes details of individual advisers, the Minister or Minister of State to whom they are assigned, their respective date of appointment, salary scale and starting rate of pay at the time of their appointment.  This Listing is updated to reflect periodic changes and is published on gov.ie alongside the aforementioned Guidelines at

www.gov.ie/en/publication/9ad159-special-advisers-pay/

In the case of my own Department, I have set out details of the costs of Special Advisers assigned to my Department for each of the last 2 years in the table below.