Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach's original explanation for the creation of this highly staffed unit has changed over time. Initially, he claimed it as a major personal initiative but then said it was really a Civil Service initiative. He also informed the Dáil it would be in addition to the Government Information Service but changed his position to stating it would take over from it.

What is extraordinary about the unit is it has undertaken research on what it should do, but it has already decided on what it will do. Will the Taoiseach explain how it was decided to spend €5 million on marketing to promote a select series of initiatives before any work was undertaken to get feedback from the public on what it would like to receive information on? The entire purpose of the unit, if we are to believe what we have been told, is to fill a gap in terms of information which the public wants, but the Taoiseach has decided unilaterally what the public wants. He announced the various communication campaigns. I wrote to the Secretary General of the Department and I received a comprehensive reply, and the objective of my letter was to raise and identify my main concern in terms of the party politicisation of Government communications.

The Taoiseach referenced the buying of media advertising in digital and print, and there is a huge danger of the blurring of the demarcation lines between bona fide departmental campaigns and full-blooded political campaigns. The Taoiseach mentioned the national building programme, and I challenge anyone to distinguish between an objective information campaign and a full-blooded political campaign. We have got a small taste of this, and I have not fully got the background of it, but recently the unit tweeted #generalelection18. What the business of the communications unit has to do with politics and elections is beyond me, but it gives us a small sense of the dangers that can unfold when something like this is developed.

The Secretary General of the Department has made it very clear to me he will do everything he possibly can to ring-fence and have a demarcation line, but I have to say that even what the Taoiseach has announced today concerns me in terms of the degree to which this will be about promoting individual Ministers and a broader party political message, rather than the provision of basic information. I understand the social welfare booklet going out in terms of information for citizens, but we are all fairly open-eyed here, and if it is a campaign about someone getting a road or getting this or that, then I know what that is and it can be dressed up in any shape or form. There is a huge danger here. Will the Taoiseach give us any assurance this is not simply to promote Ministers and their political campaigns and that the €5 million will not be used in this way?

See this speech in context