Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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I would like to see more of what that approach should be in terms of value for money. There is no doubt that there is a case to be made on that. That function is a separate thing. I do not disagree that that is needed. I said that during some of the debate that occurred. For example, we saw a high profile campaign on the national development plan and the national planning framework. The thing about it is that a sizeable amount of the money for the unit was spent on that campaign alone. It is not that both of those plans are not important but they would merit coverage in local media anyway by virtue of the fact that a plan would be something that would be happening over such a long period of time and there was going to be capital spending over 20 years. There was something for everyone in the audience. Local media would be very happy to cover that yet public money was spent on that campaign.

Reading some of the claims made on the project 2040 content in the print media, the advertorials essentially looked like they were normal coverage. In a lot of cases they had a little banner across the top and fitted in as though they were normal news items. Even the perception that they are normal news items is a problem. That was a very well planned campaign that was done across the country. I am not saying there is not merit in communicating a new approach to the national planning framework or how the capital spending should happen in parallel with that, but is Mr. Fraser, as the Accounting Officer, comfortable with the way it was communicated and the amount of money that was spent? In terms of how it might blend the political with the administrative, does Mr. Fraser think there was an appropriate separation there?