Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

I wish to come back to the reply the Taoiseach gave me that the Transport 21 and climate change advertisements did not come under the Quigley report, because he said they were not a service to the Ministers concerned. What are they for? Both those advertisements basically suggest we are marvellous to spend all this money on transport and to do all we are doing for climate change. They are clearly political advertisements dressed up as some kind of public information. What is the benefit of those advertisements to the public? As the public are paying for them, what are they getting from the Transport 21 advertisements? They add nothing to the value of public information and do not provide material information the public would want to have. These advertisements are purely about promoting the Government.

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