I was reliably informed today that a Junior Minister of my acquaintance has a staff of eleven (11) to help with the mythical workload.
This doesnāt cover the situation that includes 2 drivers on a week on/off basis where the salary is ā¬46k whether your off or on.
Iād say the MHR back-up team (insert family members) are seething with the act Danny perpetrated upon them. Jackie Jnr on almost ā¬100k as a āspecial advisorā will be particularly needledā¦.
Will this drive the shinners mad?
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2026/0614/1578361-unified-island-fine-gael/
Kwasi Doherty will be lepping up and down waving papers around
Shinners have been calling for FFG to do this for years . Itās about time tbf
Starmer is busy over.
Probably as good a time as any to kick it off.
Drivers are on over ā¬100k per annum
No. They each work 26 weeks and the remuneration for this is ā¬46k p.a.
You chauffeur the mini-minister to the DĆ”il Tue/Wed/Thur in the Ministerās own car and the day is your own until going home time.
Itās a great little country really.
Thatās the figure for Garda ministerial drivers iirc - tis in that ballpark anyway
Im talking about the Garda Ministerial drivers who are on the equuvalent to a Superās salary of ā¬100k per annum.
Great wee country indeed.
Per an article recently in the Sunday Times.
Current salary bill for Garda drivers us ā¬7.67 million.
The Gardai would not reveal the number of Gardai drivers bur I estimate there are approx 70 drivers which works out at 110k per annum. There might be as few as 50 which would mean a salary of 153k per annum.
Sounds legit.
This really is a great wee country. You see the UK, a much bigger country, itās only the three or fourr get police drivers. All the rest are assigned carpool things. I think the average salary is about ā¬45,000 per annum. The likes of Finland donāt have anything, or Portugal for that matter. So itās absolutely bizarre that we in Ireland say, yeah, no problem, pay ā¬120,000 to drive a minister around the place because heās under threat from the assassins, etc., etc. Whereas in all these other countries they donāt bother their arse. They pay the drivers ā¬30,000, ā¬40,000 a year. This is an absolute farce of a country.
Who gets a full time driver?
I thought we mostly got rid of the ministerial cars and drivers a few years ago with a few exceptions for Taoiseach/Tanaiste and Minister for Justice?
All Cabinet ministers have Garda protection drivers.
Some Ministers of State, particularly super juniors and those with higher profile portfolios, may also have Garda drivers.
The Gaedai will not release this information.
The exact allocations are based on Garda security assessments and government decisions and are not disclosed publicly.
Following austerity measures introduced after 2010, most Government ministers were assigned civilian drivers instead of Garda protection drivers, with Garda resources largely reserved for the Taoiseach and a small number of ministers with specific security responsibilities.
However, following a security review commissioned by Garda Commissioner Drew Harris in 2022, the Government approved the reintroduction of Garda driver/protection officers for ministers.
The review concluded that the security environment facing public representatives had changed significantly, with increased risks of threats, intimidation and hostile incidents, leading to a recommendation that GardaĆ resume responsibility for ministerial transport and close protection duties.
Personally, Iām not convinced by the review.
My experience is that sometimes reports are commissioned to support a particular outcome rather than to genuinely test all options.
You can often predict the conclusion before the review even starts. In my opinion, thatās what happened in this case, the decision to bring back Garda drivers had effectively been made, and the review provided the justification for it.
I have looked at what happens in other similar sized European countries, and thereās very few European countries of our size that appoint police officers full time.
In other countries cabinet ministers get taxis and use public transport and so on and so forth, but our crowd are going around in big swanky top of the range Audis, BMWs, etc., and theyāre being driven by full time assigned GardaĆ, whereas in other countries they make their own way to the parliament.
Patrick OāDonovan displays his low intellect again - how in the fuck is this guy a TD let alone a Minister ??
POD sees himself as the Cabinets enforcer, all tough talk and braggadocioā¦ The Ministerial salary before exps is actually ā¬206k.
Imagine Kwasi, Carthy and MacLochlann earning this wedge - theyād never do a stroke.
Do they still give most of their wages to Belfast?
I would greatly doubt it. Havenāt the Belfast lads āenterprisesā of their own.