Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not think there was anything that could have been done to avoid controversy. I think controversy was inevitable. It started from the day I announced I was setting up the strategic communications unit. There was controversy even before it was established. It did not happen until many months after the announcement as I was answering questions about it in the Dáil. By the way, I do not believe it crossed the line into politics. Ms Elizabeth Canavan's report indicates that it did not.

There are two obvious lessons to be learned. First, I accept that there is a lesson about controls that could have been put in place in advance. Second, I issued a guideline on the matter, but, on reflection, I should have done so earlier. If I had known more about these things, it was about the requirement for all editorial content to be signed off on by the SCU and the Department in advance and as part of the media partnerships. Decisions on how the advertorials would look and what photographs would be included in them were left to local editors. It would have been advisable for us to say from the outset that the SCU would sign off on the editorial content. While it was the case that 100% of the advertorials were clearly marked as being in partnership with Project Ireland 2040 and the Government, we could have been much more prescriptive in how that should appear.

A number of weeks ago I made five points on what could have been done better. There is certainly a lesson to be learned in that regard. If it had been done earlier, perhaps there might have been less controversy, but I think there would still have been controversy.