THE CABINET has formally approved the appointment of a special adviser for Minister of State for European Affairs Lucinda Creighton on a salary in line with the Civil Service’s assistant principal officer grade.
The Taoiseach’s spokesman confirmed yesterday’s Cabinet meeting involved an agreement that former children’s television presenter Stephen O’Shea would serve as Ms Creighton’s special adviser on an “assistant principal standard” salary. Wages for this grade range from €61,966 to €72,268. Mr O’Shea’s salary has not been confirmed, but is expected to be at the first point of the scale.
Mr O'Shea (26) presented RTÉ's children's news programme, News2day, after studying journalism at Dublin City University. He worked for Fine Gael during the 2007 general election and has been working for Ms Creighton since August 2010.
He was Ms Creighton’s assistant in Leinster House but has been operating as her special adviser in recent months and is named as such in the 2011 edition of the Public Affairs Ireland directory.
Ms Creighton and Minister of State for primary care Róisín Shortall are the only two junior ministers to secure special advisers.
Guidelines laid down by the Department of Finance indicate this should not happen, except in “exceptional” circumstances and with Government approval.
After a recent Cabinet discussion it was agreed Ms Creighton could have a special adviser because of the workload associated with Ireland’s EU presidency in 2013. At that meeting approval was also sought and received for Ms Shortall to appoint former journalist and health policy author Maev-Ann Wren as a part-time adviser.
Willie Penrose, who recently resigned as the so-called “super junior” minister, was entitled to two advisers. He had appointed unsuccessful Labour general election candidate Aidan Culhane as a special adviser on a salary in line with principal officers. The guidelines make exception for “a minister of state who regularly attends meetings of the government”. Mr Penrose’s replacement is expected to be announced shortly.
