Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The relevance of the issues raised has served a useful purpose. Government guidelines and procedures have been changed to deal with these issues and to ensure they do not happen again. If public relations or communications issues arise, they go through a different procedure, particularly if they are associated or there is a direct service element to the Minister or Minister of State.

In complying with the Ceann Comhairle's ruling, any consultancy or public relations exercises involved with the Department of the Taoiseach, which are minimal enough, are based around the presentation of data to the public. It is not public relations in the sense referred to by the Deputy. The work mainly involves compiling reports or researching and gathering data. I do not have large public relations launches or strategies in my Department.

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