With a change of government comes a myriad of lesser changes all the way down through the administration. Oireachtas committees, chairmanships, boards, advisers, programme managers, press officers and even office spaces are on the move. While many may not occur until the autumn, the trends are already clear. There will be only two programme managers under the FF/PD Government, as opposed to 16 under the Rainbow. Gerry Hickey will represent FF and the PDs have yet to make an appointment. There will be advisers to all Ministers but only four are in place to date. Fewer junior ministers straddle departments so the number of offices and consequent staff has been cut back. The new Government reckons it is saving taxpayers around £6 million.
Such changes are pretty straightforward but it is the formation of committees that is causing the worst headaches. Following demands from all sides of the House, there were 23 committees under the Rainbow. Because it was found that members were unable to service them and because the new Government is a minority one, this number will be reduced at least by half. Chief whip Seamus Brennan is strongly resisting Opposition demands to set up the committees now. He wants to ensure first that the Government has a majority - at least on those Dail committees dealing with legislation. On Oireachtas committees, which include senators, the Government will be safe.
If DL forms a technical group with the 10 others, that will mean two extra Dail parties exist. It takes seven members for privileges, which will make things extremely difficult for the Government, committeewise. To resolve the situation, the chief whip intends meeting all the parties and the Independents in the autumn to work out a formula.