Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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First, I would like the committee to request the business case. Second, in relation to the process for populating the unit, it would be useful to know who came from where. Were staff seconded from different Departments or were they recruited? That matters in relation to the financial aspect. We have all spoken in other forums. Different committees will do different things. I expect the Joint Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment will look at this, as will the Department of Expenditure and Public Reform, and it has already been raised in the Dáil. There are different strands which will be explored, and we need to separate the appropriate segment for this committee as we will not cover the entire gamut. For example, having made a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland, I have discovered it does not have a remit in this type of advertising, so I will write to the communications committee to ask if we have appropriate safeguards.