Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I am not aware of the relevance of the last comment about the family. Everything we do must be in compliance with the law, whether it is planning law or any other type.

There has been a reduction of more than €25 million in expenditure on advertising, public relations and consultancies, as announced by the Minister for Finance in February 2009. There are public information campaigns about issues that must be brought to the attention of the public in the areas of health, the environment and so on. This is done by Departments and local authorities, and such campaigns serve a purpose.

There is no committee in existence to oversee public relations contracts and there never has been. Proposals which fall under the two criteria I mentioned in my reply are referred to the Government secretariat. Otherwise, matters must be dealt with under the reduced budgets of Departments themselves.

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