Shane Cassells (Meath West, Fianna Fail)
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My point is there is no question that is more fundamental than if people can use public money to try to present spin as news and if the State is buying the news. If the Government presents its press releases, so be it, but if we have come to a point where it can pay for the design to look the same as on every other page in a newspaper, we have entered a most dangerous sphere. Newspapers know it. This is clearly a misuse of public money and one does not need to set up a commission or a committee to investigate it. Anything that fails to be presented as an advertorial and if public money is spent in doing so is a clear misuse of public money and the question demands to be answered. That the Taoiseach flippantly tried to disregard it in the Dáil is a disgrace. The Government cannot buy the news.