Fine Gael TD Michael Ring has revealed that almost €10m will be spent this year on propping up the Taoiseach and his ministers.
“At a time of cutbacks, the knife should start at the bloated top where ministers are surrounded by huge retinues of advisers, press officers and constituency workers. Let’s see the Government lead by example and cut some of these jobs instead of taking frontline services away in areas like health and education,” he said.
Based on a series of Dáil questions, Deputy Ring has established that this year the Taoiseach and his Ministers will spend €3.7m on special advisers, €3.1m on press offices and €2.9m on constituency staff, a total of almost €10m.
“These bloated ministerial offices cannot be immune from cutbacks. The Government tried to pretend that health and education services would not be cut, but with every passing day we hear of more and more services under threat. The Government must lead from the front and cut from the top.
“It is worth looking at the biggest offenders. Brian Cowen who led us into the recession costs €1.9m. The Minister for Health who is employing even more consultants this week costs us over €900,000 and the Minister for the Environment who awarded a €1m contract for bat research this week will cost us €800,000 in backup. Its time the Taoiseach and his ministers got their priorities right.”
