Irish Politics Thread

Up until the 90s they were appointments within the PS.   A PO or and AP would get the gig and would advise them on policy in the Department etc. since the 90s they are more party loyalists who are the eyes and ears of the minister separate to the Department.  As a result the number one requirement for them is that they are loyal to the TD in question.  Same for every party.  This appointment is not unique.  It’s in line with every other such appointment.  It’s the same with opposition parties and their parliamentary assistants.  

Het-field wrote: I think playing politics with wages and salary is the lowest of the low in terms of appealing to voters (well, apart from the right wing nonsense spouted by the likes of the National Party). If that money is not going back to the exchequer it is being spent in a way that the recipient is willing to spend it even if all they are seeing is the “average industrial wage.”

You must be disgusted with your beloved blueshirts increasing minimum wage on at least 4 separate occasions

The system is garbage, but the optics of appointing a prodigal party members sister, within days of her return is also garbage. Since these jobs are tax payer funded and not open competition, they should be the average industrial wage. Then let's see how many of those south of the Liffey take these positions 

Not sure what the issue is. It’s the gift of any minister to pick whoever they like as they will be the ones relying on their advisor.  She has done it before and she is obviously of FG blood. Both of which are attributes he will be looking for.   In addition he has just come from OPW so he would have worked with her directly recently.  Don’t see how it’s different to any other advisor appointment.  It will be the same whichever party is in power too.  The advisors will be a mixture of loyal party councillors, media experts, policy wonks etc whether it’s SF, FF, FG, SD or Lab in gov. 

And her sister is married to Hugh O'Connell the journo