MORE than 69 programme managers and ministerial advisers will leave their posts on tune 26th, assuming the Fianna Fail leader. Mr Bertie Ahern, forms a government that day.
The tenure of the political appointees ends with that of the ministers and ministers of state who employ them. Those who have jobs to return to will receive no severance pay, while those with no other job will receive two months pay or four weeks pay for each year of service, whichever is the greater.
Thus programme managers and advisers to Labour Party ministers, most of whom were appointed in January 1993, will receive 18 weeks pay reflecting their 4 1/2 years service. While the salaries of such political appointees vary, those on a typical salary of £45,000 would receive roughly £15,500. Those who were appointed in January 1995, mainly by incoming Fine Gael ministers, will receive roughly £8,000.
Many of the programme managers and advisers are on secondment or leave of absence from jobs in the private sector, the public service, trade unions and other bodies.
While Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats have constantly criticised the Government, and particularly the Labour Party ministers, for the numbers of political appointments they have made, they are now expected to make a considerable number of such appointments themselves.
This would mirror the behaviour of Fine Gael, which was sharply critical of the system and of the number of appointments while in opposition, but proceeded to make appointments on a similar scale when it came to office in early 1995. While confirming that Fianna Fail would make such political appointments, a party spokesman said yesterday - it would not appoint as many as the outgoing government.
The system of programme managers was introduced by the Fianna Fail/Labour government in early 1993. This new layer of political appointees was given responsibility for ensuring that government commitments in each ministry were met. They met weekly to review progress in each area, to solve problems before they reached ministerial level and to provide a channel of communication between ministers offices.
The Taoiseach's chief programme manager and adviser on Northern Ireland, Mr Sean Donlon, said yesterday that the programme manager system had greatly helped the cohesion of the Rainbow Government. He had chaired the weekly meetings of programme managers from each department and the system had helped ensure the implementation of 95 per cent of the commitments in the Programme for Government, he said, but that was the least difficult part of the job.
"The system was most useful when unexpected problems arose. They didn't have to go to the top every time to be resolved. We were often able to do it and it contributed greatly to the Government's cohesion. In a three party Coalition, it certainly worked."
As well as programme managers and advisers, many ministers and ministers of state have appointed personal assistants and secretaries from outside the Civil Service, as well as two civilian drivers each. These also lost their positions with the change of government.