If we hadn’t gone through a period of mistrust in the government and parliament, Ministers being bought, Senators pretending they lived in Cork to claim mileage, Ministers taking chauffeured cars between terminals in Heathrow and everything else, then the news that Alan Farrell TD is hiring his wife to work for him would be no surprise.

However Deputy Farrell is not alone in hiring a family member. I’m hearing that daughters are being drafted in to take the €41k starting salary. There is no transparency in how the staff who are hired to work for TD’s are recruited. Each TD is entitled to hire a parliamentary assistant and a secretarial assistant. With 76 new TD’s that could be 152 jobs. How many of these were advertised with FAS or in local newspapers? All news of familial appointments in the comments if you hear of them.