Bit of a trend emerging of broadsheet political journalists being hired by FG/FF to work as specialist advisors to Ministers, with Fiach Kelly of the Irish Times and Susan Mitchell of the Sunday Business Post being the latest to jump ship:
Atticus: Journalists happy to hack it in government
It’s the highest-profile defection from journalism to politics since Seán Duignan left RTE in 1992 to become government press secretary. Fiach Kelly, deputy polwww.thetimes.co.uk
Dunno if you can blame the journalists given how unsteady the print media landscape is at the moment but it's surely eroding the credibility of political reporting for so many of them to end up employed by the government (that may be part of the reason for hiring them, I suppose).
Its not even emerging - A lot go under the radar into these roles. Emerging certainly since the relationship between DOB and BA became less of a viable working mechanism. A lot go to PR these days too. I remember hearing the Neo Varadkar admin had 12 on the books.