Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The questions relate to the communications unit and its work. The point I have been making is that currently some Departments have individual contracts with media monitoring companies to provide them with media notification specific to their areas. In order to ensure that the most efficient and effective service is utilised across Departments, we decided to explore the appointment of a single provider that could provide a viable solution leading to cost savings across the service. The purpose of the arrangements we are considering is to see if there is a viable way of doing this far more cost-effectively than at present.

As a former officeholder, Deputy Gilmore will be aware that the press office is involved in far more that what is being portrayed here today. I made the same point to the Leader of the Opposition. In fact, since Deputy Gilmore held office there is a far greater proliferation of media outlets to be contended with and dealt with professionally and effectively than was the case previously. That requires a workload which is part of the work of a Department of State, part of providing information upon request and part of ensuring that those who have queries on matters are dealt with. That is an ongoing element of the work of a Department which could be involved in the expenditure of billions of euro. It is in that context that, clearly, one must have a press office arrangement to deal with the plethora of inquiries and, indeed, in terms of presenting to the public or to the public via the media various policy initiatives, decisions and allocations of public moneys being made.

It is quite normal, proper procedure that such would be the case and the idea that one could do that job without individual press offices in Departments where specialised knowledge is available from departmental staff is a nonsense. These people do necessary and important work and to reduce all that work to suggesting that it is a question of going around copying pieces of paper and sending them into the Minister's office does an injustice to those who are working in those offices.

This work is an important part of the role of a Department in terms of accountability, accuracy and ensuring that the media are in a position to present in full the context of policies and decisions etc. It is part of modern government. It is part of communicating to the public and the idea that it can be done any other way is nonsensical. That being said, one must do it in as efficient and effective a way as possible. In reply to the question tabled, a tender is being sought to see if there is a viable way of doing this in a centralised way. This does not mean replacing the communications unit; it means ensuring that the communications unit can do on behalf of other Departments what is being done separately at present.

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