The new government is set to be the largest in the history of the State following a decision to create three additional minister of State roles, creating an unprecedented 23 such jobs and 38 ministerial roles in all.
And the government’s first legislation will be to amend the law to provide for the extra jobs and for the appointment of the fourth super junior Cabinet member.
A Government spokesman said, however, that the additional positions were needed to ensure a “strong and stable government”, particularly in light of the challenges ahead and because the population has grown by 20 per cent in a generation. The State is bound by the constitutional restriction on 15 senior ministers and the workload had grown significantly in these areas, the spokesman said.
During the Celtic Tiger years then taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2007 appointed 20 junior ministers but this dropped to the standard 15 in the recession years and rose to 18 in 2016, increasing again to 20 in the outgoing Government.
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A minister of State helps the senior minister to run a department and is assigned a specific responsibility but is always answerable to the senior minister. Many seniors give their juniors free rein in their responsibilities while others run a tight ship and can take the glory for a junior’s achievements, though in most cases in the current Government senior and junior ministers co-operated well.
The three additional junior posts will be specifically for asylum/migration, the marine and older people.
The super junior sits at Cabinet but does not get to vote on matters and does not have responsibility for managing a Government department.
The first super junior minister appointed was then Democratic Left TD Pat Rabbitte in the 1994 Rainbow coalition, a position dubbed by Irish Times columnist Miriam Lord as the Cabinet “highchair”. He got the position in the haggling to create the State’s first three-party coalition, when it emerged that party leader Proinsias de Rossa would be the sole Democratic Left TD at Cabinet.
Backbench TDs are on a salary of €113,679, with an additional €45,846 for ministers of State and a further allowance of €16,200 for super juniors. Currently, ministers of State lose their travel and accommodation allowance when they take up the role. Government sources have said the restoration of the allowance is “under review” but incoming minister of State Michael Healy-Rae has said it will be restored.
Backbench TDs get an overnight travel payment based on different bands depending on the distance their constituency is from Leinster House, while ministers of State receive a mileage allowance based on the specific distance driven. The travel and accommodation allowance is said to be worth close to the value of the junior minister’s additional salary.
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