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

The roll-out and launch of the national development plan have been by far the most expensive and extensive ever undertaken by a Government. The role of the strategic communications unit, SCU, which the Taoiseach established and whose head he selected, must come under the closest of scrutiny and most comprehensive of reviews. The SCU-directed campaign has, either advertently or inadvertently, politicised elements of the Civil Service, whether we like it or care to admit it. The campaign represents an abuse of taxpayers' money. Government advertisements or funding of the media should be at arm's length and should not be used for party political or electoral objectives. The Civil Service code in this regard has been breached as a result of this campaign.

If one reads the Longford Leader, Limerick Leader or Roscommon Herald, for example, one will see advertisements masquerading as news articles, with Fine Gael Party candidates prominent in them. Some are not members of the Government or even Members of the Oireachtas but election candidates. A double page spread in the Sunday Worldfeatures Senator Gabrielle McFadden and places emphasis on Athlone. The Minister of State, Deputy Kevin Boxer Moran, features but not to the same degree as Senator McFadden. Again, this is a clear electoral pitch by any yardstick. It is meant to be an advertisement informing members of the public about the national planning framework or national development plan. In essence, however, it is the use of taxpayers' money to advance and promote Fine Gael election candidates. One sees the same trend in other constituencies in terms of trying to identify key marginal constituencies and promoting issues that affect them.

We have an independent media, thanks be to God, which is essential to the health of our democracy. Speaking truth to power is an essential prerequisite of this. The media need revenue and the Fianna Fáil Party does not have any difficulty with advertisements that are clearly identified as such. Media content partnerships between government and the media should be fully transparent. In that context, one local editor told The Times,Ireland edition:

This is fake news. Newspapers are struggling and the government know that, so they've got us by the..."

Parliamentary decency prevents me from finishing the sentence. Regional newspapers were instructed to make Government advertorials look like independent stories and, in some cases, part of the normal news cycle.

I have some basic questions. Last week the Taoiseach was asked the estimated cost of this campaign. Will he outline to the House what it has cost and the overall estimated cost? Does he accept that there has been a blurring of lines in how all of this has transpired, that it has involved politicisation of the staff of the strategic communications unit and that, essentially, the entire promotion has been about Fine Gael's electoral advancement?

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