Sir, – I read with interest your feature article on “The people behind the power” (News Review, March 16th). A total of 69 advisers were listed at a cost of €8.276 million to the public purse. The CVs are impressive, and a number of advisers were regarded as shrewd, well regarded, with good political antenna, and described as being the “eyes and ears” of their political masters.
These attributes were sorely missing in the recent referendums.
If the advisers were doing their jobs properly, given their apparent quality, it must have been obvious that a positive result would be difficult to achieve without significant changes in wording and content, and their advice should have been to postpone or cancel the referendums.
Or maybe the Ministers take the opinions of advisers as precisely that – opinions.
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‘I could have gone to California. At this rate, I probably would have raised about half a billion dollars’
The public could provide the same opinion for free, if asked properly.
The job of the permanent Civil Service is to advise Ministers. I believe that senior civil servants are extremely well qualified and knowledgeable about their portfolios these days, and the presence of an alternative cohort of advisers is an unnecessary duplication, an irritant and a slight on their professional ability.
Perhaps it is time to disband the special adviser group. Their alleged functions – the implementation of an agreed programme of government and the avoidance of public rows between the Coalition parties – can clearly be handled by the Civil Service in the first place and the party whips in the latter case, and with a significant saving to the taxpayer. – Yours, etc,
NIALL L PELLY, Snr
Foxrock,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – Thanks you for the comprehensive guide to the people behind the power.
I have always wondered why so many political advisers are needed, but now I am left wondering why do we need Ministers. – Yours, etc,
MARY LEE,
Newbridge,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – It is perhaps evidence of mental acuity diminishing with age but having read carefully your profiles of the Government’s 68 special advisers, I am at a loss to understand what they actually do. – Yours, etc,
BRENDAN CONWAY,
New Quay,
Co Clare.
Sir, – You carries a detailed analysis of the current 69 special advisers hired by Government Ministers and Ministers of State. These advisers are hired per statutory instrument of a Government Minister. They are not recruited by open competition. Nineteen of these are former journalists.
The majority of the remaining advisers have a background of activism and allegiance to their respective political parties.
However, is it not somewhat unsettling that so many former political journalists, whose self-declared role is “to hold power to account”, now work for the very people who wield that “power”?
Since the recent developments in RTÉ, and the increasing challenges to mainstream media from social media, we are constantly lectured about the fundamental importance to democracy of independent public service journalism. And the need for this journalism to be funded by taxation.
This is the profession which constantly reminds us of its importance to democracy. And why we need a public service media which does hold power to account.
But becoming a special adviser to those holding political power hardly fits in with that lofty aspiration. – Yours, etc,
LARRY DUNNE,
Rosslare Harbour,
Co Wexford.