Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Some people seem to think it would be grand for every Department to spend €100,000 to avail of the services of outside commercial companies, but then have problems when they learn that six civil servants are doing the same work in an efficient manner. That work is done on a non-political basis. Great references to political slants or spins are not made during election campaigns or at any other time. The civil servants in question merely produce copies of newspaper headlines, or maybe some lines from editorials, to forewarn the officials in the various Departments, who can look at the text of the various sheets to see the issues they should be functioning on and dealing with quickly. It is a quick way for the Government to communicate and deal with things properly. The service exists to inform officials in line Departments of issues which need to be followed up — something incorrect may be in the public domain, for example. It is entirely appropriate to use a small group of people to do that for the Civil Service.

See this speech in context