3 politicians need 17 Special Advisors

Dempo1

Pauliedragon wrote: »

I agree with pretty much everything in that post but one thing is the 350 PUP payment ended on the the 17th which meant the payment on the 22nd was on the new 300 payment.

No, the payment on the 22nd was infact payment up to the 17th, as explained the payment is a full week in arrears, indded welfare are good enough to actually confirm this in mywelfare accounts. In essence, the payment reduction was flagged as being FROM the 17th as clearly noted on all websites and communications.

Dempo1

Muahahaha wrote: »

Isnt that the crux of the issue, while we are told that the reason these special advisors are needed is to research and give advice to the Minister on public policy the reality is many of them arent doing that at all, their primary goal is to make sure their Minister gets re-elected by doing their constituency work for them. It is pure parish pump stuff and the taxpayer is literally paying these people huge sums of money to give Ministers an advantage over their local political rivals at election time. it also begs the question as to why they get an allowance to pay a constituency secretary in the first place.

Yes but of course in addition, all Ministers get additional constituency office running expenses, given they have to commit to a full departmental brief, God Bless them

Everlong1

StackSteevens wrote: »

Thing is that Civil Servants - other than those who are assigned to Ministers' Offices - are not tasked with doing their utmost to ensure that their current political boss gets re-elected to the Dail. That's the main responsibility of these so-called "special advisers".

And it's much the same with Ministerial Press "advisers" whose role is quite different from that of Departmental Press Officers. In a nutshell, the DPO's job is to keep their Department out of the news as much as possible while the Minister's PA is trying his/her utmost to get their boss into the papers - but only if it's a good news story or a good photo op!

Precisely. Advisors are NOT Civil Servants and should not be confused with same. There is - or at least should be - a clear demarcation between political work and Civil Service work. There certainly is in my Department anyway.

Richard Hillman

I can understand the Taoiseach needing staff and then the likes of the Minister of Finance but the vast majority of them only need a Personal Assistant to manage their time, transport, meetings etc.

It's a gravy train for to keep media sweet.

Muahahaha

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I can understand the Taoiseach needing staff and then the likes of the Minister of Finance but the vast majority of them only need a Personal Assistant to manage their time, transport, meetings etc.

It's a gravy train for to keep media sweet.

And in Eamon Ryans case he now has eight of them. What exactly does he need eight special advisors for, does it take the eight of them to wake him up when he goes nodding off or something?

stockshares

Muahahaha wrote: »

And in Eamon Ryans case he now has eight of them. What exactly does he need eight special advisors for, does it take the eight of them to wake him up when he goes nodding off or something?

I thought Anne Rabbittes quote sums it all up.
When she was asked why she was getting an advisor she said
"she didn't have the "skill set" to deliver what needs to be done."

So they don't have the skillset to do the jobs they are assigned to do. The question is then why are they given those jobs in the first place?

I started a thread previously on Ryan's advisors without realising this thread existed. I've reposted info from the article on his advisors below to have it in one place

Eamonn Ryan has 9 special advisors. It's gas that he needs the advise of a Councillor to do his job.
https://amp.independent.ie/irish-new...mpression=true

6 advisors at the Office of the Green Party leader in the Department of the Taoiseach
2 joint chiefs of staff. Salary €139,628 - €159,725.
Donall Geoghegan, who was a special adviser to Independent ministers in the last government. Mr Geoghegan was also programme manager for the Greens when they were in Government with Fianna Fáil between 2007 and 2011.

Anna Conlan, the Green Party's former political manager in the last Dáil.

Principal Officers. Salary €87,325 and €101,114
One full-time adviser.
Éamonn Fahey, who is a former Green Party researcher and whose CV includes positions at the ESRI, Pensions Authority and the Department of Social ­Protection

2 Part time officers €43,662 - €50,557 per annum.
Fingal mayor David Healy, a Green Party councillor for Howth-Malahide, who is serving as a part-time special adviser to Mr Ryan

Niamh Allen

Government press secretary
Fingal county councillor, Ian Carey, as deputy

3 special advisers at Dept of Transport and the Dept of Climate Action and Communications.
They are:
John McDonald(his former parliamentary assistant)
Paul Kenny(former CEO of the Tipperary Energy Agency)
Margaret Ward(former journalist and foreign editor at RTÉ)

Everlong1

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I can understand the Taoiseach needing staff and then the likes of the Minister of Finance but the vast majority of them only need a Personal Assistant to manage their time, transport, meetings etc.

It's a gravy train for to keep media sweet.

Every Minister has a Private Secretary. This is a Civil Service Post, usually at HEO level, who would have responsibility for that kind of routine time management stuff. Other Civil Service staff in the Minister's office would handle that stuff as well. Processing invitations to events, representations (i.e. the thousands of letters that flood in from parish pump gobshi*es like the Healy Raes looking for favors for their constituents), etc.