Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

That is not the situation in terms of the work these public servants do. A small part of the work of some public servants involves giving Ministers' offices an indication of the media coverage of what is going on in their Departments. The press offices in the various Departments provide much more assistance and value than that. It is a question of ensuring that the communications unit in the Department of the Taoiseach, to which the questions tabled to me relate, is working effectively. We are checking whether they can operate more effectively than they are operating at the moment. It is quite right that we would review the operation of the unit from time to time. Press offices are involved in far more than the Deputy is suggesting. Press offices provide for such a huge demand from many media outlets, both print and electronic, on an ongoing basis that the interaction between a Department and the public via the media is an intrinsic part of its work and, therefore, reducing that work to suggest it is simply about pasting is a little superfluous.

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