Kildare South TD Fiona O'Loughlin has slammed the addition of three extra Minister of State jobs to the new government.
Enda Kenny and his Fine Gael party downgraded the number of Minister of State positions to just 15 when they took charge in 2011, but the economic recovery of the last number of years led to the Taoiseach appointing 18 ministers in such roles this year.
O'Loughlin, who was speaking on an Irish Times podcast with Fine Gael TD Kate O'Connell, blasted the new establishment for creating jobs when there was no real need to.
"It seems that there was no lessons learned, and I would be inclined to agree with Kate in relation to this, because now there appears to be possibly more drivers being employed by the State than there are actual TDs," stated Deputy O'Loughlin.
"One has to wonder about that, and I think that while there was the increase in Minister of State positions, we still didn't see environment featuring very strongly, or indeed certain aspects of the arts as well."
"I think that in terms of the divvy-up, areas that should have received prominence didn't. I certainly would have rather seen a situation where we would have stuck with the status quo at 15.
The Fianna Fáil representative also spoke expressively about the hard time that women face in politics, and that the gender quota that was introduced had little bearing on her election into government.
"I always said if there was an opportunity to put my name forward I would, as an electable candidate first, and as a woman second. In my own particular situation, I wasn't a quota candidate," she explained.
"We had a convention, and when it was decreed that there would be only one candidate chosen I always felt that there was the potential for two, so I absolutely contested that. I was beaten by just five votes at that particular time, so I knew 48% of people that voted at the convention wanted me to run. I just had to keep up the pressure."
"I was quite a late addition coming into the election, but I was happy that I was able to prove the critics wrong, prove that there was room for myself to represent the people and also that Fianna Fáil, in Kildare South could have one of the strongest victories and performances."
"I come from a situation where I was for many years the only woman on Newbridge Town Council with eight other men. That was a very strong learning experience for me," she continued.
Deputy O'Loughlin explained that once she was recognised for being a good politician, rather than a good female politician, she began to feel more comfortable in her role on the town council.
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