Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

What guidelines are in place and what is the manner in which the Government press secretary and the Government press office deal with complaints, especially to RTE? I note from a reply to a written question from Deputy Varadkar on 1 April that two complaints have been made by the Government press secretary to RTE since May 2008. One was in June of last year and the other in March of this year. The latter complaint related to the drawings hung in the National Gallery of Ireland, which I believe was a rather juvenile exercise.

My concern is not related to that issue as such, but we have heard reports concerning the way in which the complaint was made directly to the director general of RTE. Will the Taoiseach indicate if this was the case? If it was the case, does the Taoiseach consider it appropriate that the Government press secretary should deal with RTE on matters of programme or news content? I do not have any objection to the Government press secretary making contact with news editors and I expect he does so on a very regular basis. However, I was surprised to read that the approach was made directly to the director general. Was this the case and what is the Taoiseach's view in this regard?

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