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

I am aware of the legislation under consideration by the Taoiseach's Department. In relation to previous correspondence, however, it may be important for the Taoiseach to consider legislating for the strategic communications unit, or SCU, and consider the statutory underpinning of it. He says it is important to communicate what the Government does and he talks about roads and so on, but thus far, all the communication has been party political with Ministers front and centre. One analyst in the news media described it as "Pyongyang on the Garavogue", which was an insightful observation. All of the videos I have seen thus far are of Ministers and it is not actually hard information for the public. It says we are going to do roads and schools in 2024 to 2030. However, the real information people want through TII on a major road project like the N28 is not glossy brochures, it is the number of CPOs along the route, as well as information about the alignment and direction of the route. It is the same with the Macroom bypass, any motorway project or the A5. The real public information, which is hard to get from time to time and which is not provided by the strategic communications unit, is how a project affects residential amenity and the community. That is hard information the Government should be providing to the public transparently and openly without any political context. It is about hard, objectively-sourced information.

I put it genuinely to the Taoiseach that there is a real danger in what is happening here and I do not think he gets it. There is a muddying of the waters and an overlap between strictly Government information and political communication and information. This is an ongoing thing with various programmes and it runs a real risk of corrupting the democratic process over time. We must look at that and set down very clear parameters. I ask the Taoiseach and the Secretary General of his Department to consider a legislative underpinning for this setting out clear parameters as to how Government, as distinct from party political, communications should work. Following the McKenna judgment on referenda, I recall the rigid demarcation early on in Lisbon 1 and 2 that had to be followed as to what Departments could spend money on and do and what political parties could do. We observed that very rigidly to ensure there was no crossover which could contaminate the outcome of a referendum campaign. We saw that in the children's referendum when the courts found that errors were made in the Government's approach. It is a serious issue notwithstanding all the hilarity about billboards and the films. It merits consideration and I ask the Taoiseach to look at a legislative underpinning for the way in which the unit goes about its operations.

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