Cantwell to be paid €91k for his role as ministerial adviser
FORMER TV3 news anchor Alan Cantwell has secured a salary at the top of the pay scale for his new role as a ministerial adviser.
He is one of several advisers to be granted more than the basic salary. Mr Cantwell has been hired by Enterprise Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor as one of her two special advisers.
The pay scale for special advisers starts at €79,401 rising to €91,624 – and Mr Cantwell is to pocket that top rate.
Ministers have discretion to set salaries anywhere between €79,000 and €91,000.
A statement from the Department of Public Expenditure regarding Mr Cantwell’s appointment said: ‘In respect of this department, a decision was taken by the secretary general, in consultation with the minister, to place Mr Cantwell on point five of the principal standard scale in light of the role Mr Cantwell has taken on. This appointment was carried out in line with the rules applying to ministerial appointments for the 32nd Dáil.’
Similarly, at the Department of Health, one of Minister Simon Harris’s appointments has been given the same salary as Mr Cantwell. According to documents obtained under FOI, adviser Majella Fitzpatrick has been hired on a salary of €91,624. She had previously been director of communications for Fine Gael. The only salaries for special advisers that appear to have required sanction from Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe are appointments made by Social Protection Minister Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald.
For Mr Varadkar’s appointment, a letter was sent seeking permission to continue paying Brian Murphy €99,370, the rate already agreed during the previous government.
Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald also looked for a higher rate of pay for her adviser Marion Mannion, with a bump in pay from €87,258 to €93,297.