Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The former Taoiseach had indicated that special care needed to be exercised. That was part of the intent of the Quigley report. That is why I made the particular reference to individuals in public relations consultancy roles. Special care needs to be exercised where they have strong associations — past or present — with the current Government parties. In his reply the Taoiseach stated to me that it is up to the personal choice of individual Ministers and Departments. Surely that is not what it should be. Surely there should be a clear policy position of intent. The Taoiseach should be indicating across the board that, in the first instance, there should be a dependency on each of the respective publicity offices, PROs, or whatever phraseology applies in the Departments, and on the Government press secretary, before any consideration is given to outside professional, paid PR consultancy firms.

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