Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yes, he has come before the committee. The Taoiseach is before us today and as he is the chair of the Civil Service accountability board, I thought it was important to ask him about that. However, he said that the board has not met since 2016.

Some €15 million was spent on Covid-19 communications. We do not have a full figure-breakdown of the number of public communication campaigns etc. that have resulted in that amount. We are all aware that a lot of money would have been spent on Covid-19 communications; that is clear. I would like to see greater detail and a breakdown of what the spending was on campaigns, including spending on private media organisations compared with the State broadcaster, and if any external PR companies were hired to assist in this. If external companies were used, did they go through a competitive procurement process? We know that did not happen in some cases during Covid-19 because of the nature of the pandemic. Does the Taoiseach have that information?