Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Deputy Kenny mentioned that coming up to the last general election the Minister of State with responsibility for children misused taxpayers' money to blatantly convey a political message. However, he was not the only one. Several Ministers promoted themselves and their party affiliations under the guise of imparting information to the public coming up to the last general election. Is the Taoiseach satisfied that we will not see a recurrence of that practice on this occasion? On how many occasions has a Minister sought to implement the procedures to notify the Secretary General to the Government of a particular PR or communications contract since the guidelines, to which he referred, were introduced in, I believe, February 2005? On how many occasions has the appointment of a particular person or enterprise in that area been considered by the Government Secretariat? On how many occasions has the Secretary General made a recommendation to the Taoiseach in respect of any special procurement procedures that ought to be observed in this case, and which Ministers were the subject of this process by the Secretary General? How many times have these procedures been invoked since the affair involving the Minister for Transport, Deputy Cullen, that prompted the guidelines in the first instance?

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