‘Glorified Gofers, Policy Experts or Good Generalists’: A Classification of the Roles of the Irish Ministerial Adviser

Abstract Since 1973 ministerial advisers have become a permanent feature in the political–administrative nexus of Irish government and other countries derived from the Westminster model. This article puts forward a classification of the adviser’s role in the policy‐making process which may consist of singular or overlapping profiles of an expert, partisan, coordinator and minder. In conjunction, results from a survey and interviews conducted with a group of advisers serving in the Fianna Fáil–Progressive Democrat government of 2002–2007 are presented in order to understand the adviser’s own assessments of the value and effects of what they do in government. Their profiles, motivations for service and the concrete tasks they carried out within (vertically) and outside (horizontal) government departments are examined. It is argued that the role of the Irish ministerial adviser best fits with the ‘minder’ category but that as a collective there is potential for advisers to contribute more effectively to the political coordination of policy‐making.