asked the Minister for Labour if he will give the following details in respect of each personal assistant, adviser, consultant, secretary, typist, or any other category employed from outside the civil service in a temporary, part-time, permanent or contractual capacity from 18 December to date: name, rank, remuneration, terms and conditions of employment, if seconded and, if so, from where.

: A similar question by the Deputy answered on 26 January 1983 covered the situation up to that date. Since then there have been two further appointments.

Mr. Roy Dooney has been appointed as personal assistant to the Minister of State at a salary of £10,533 per annum. Mr. Dooney is employed in a temporary capacity and his appointment will terminate not later than the date on which the Government cease to hold office. He had been employed by the National Federation of Youth Clubs and the question of his secondment from that body is being considered.

Information concerning the pending appointment of Dr. Fergus O'Ferrall is being given in reply to a separate question today.

: Would the Minister agree that the total cost of appointments in his Department is in the region of £60,000? Would he indicate how this expenditure is justified?

: The question tabled related to appointments subsequent to 26 January and has been answered on that basis.

: I am taking the combined totals, including appointments prior to 26 January. The figure is now in excess of £60,000.

: I have not the salaries about which the Deputy was informed on 26 January but if the Deputy tells me that this is the figure, I will not dispute it.

: Does the Minister feel the expenditure is justified for people outside the civil service?

: I am quite satisfied that all the appointments made will increase the efficiency with which the Minister for Labour and myself will carry out our tasks. I note that when the Deputy opposite was in this Department he found it helpful to make an appointment outside the civil service.

: Is it the Minister's policy that one of the advisers named by him today should make public statements on his behalf? On whose behalf does he make such statements? When he gives press interviews, such as on last Sunday, on whose behalf——

: That is a separate question.

: No, it arises from the Minister's reply. This person is a paid adviser. Do the views expressed by him in last Sunday's newspaper interview represent the views of the Minister or are they his own personal views?

: There is another question related to the appointment of Dr. Fergus O'Ferrall.

6.