Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 3 May 2018

Public Accounts Committee

2016 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 2 - Department of An Taoiseach

9:00 am

Mr. Martin Fraser:

I do not want to be unhelpful. A memorandum was prepared for the Government. The substance of that memorandum is contained in my report, the audit report and the business case. Essentially, the Taoiseach wanted to set this up and reform how Government communications were handled. The business case is probably a good summary.

Over time, €5 million was to be saved. It can and still should be saved. As I wrote in my report, given the number of contracts, staff, websites, campaigns and PR companies, a large amount is being spent.

It has not been nationalised or consolidated so I think we can definitely save that money over time.