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

In only nine months, the Taoiseach has become renowned for his refusal to back off a partisan position no matter what happens. There are worrying signs that he sees no difference between the State's interests and those of his own party. He said yesterday that this is not even an issue about which we should be talking. The reason this issue keeps arising is because it involves a personal initiative of the Taoiseach to radically alter established practice when it comes to the use of public money to promote Government rather than specific initiatives or basic public information. It goes to the heart of distinguishing between the State, the politicians in government and the wider political debate. In defence of himself, the Taoiseach has now adopted the incredible position that we have a new unit of 15 people in his Department initiated by him that does nothing new and is not responsible for the output for which it is paid. Incredibly, we are told that it did not sign off on X, Y or Z. The Taoiseach has continued the now weekly habit of completely misrepresenting others in his defence. Of course, he has disgracefully attacked as false the work of a journalist who has had the temerity to point to inconvenient facts. Is it the case that the Taoiseach, as the member of Government responsible for this public spending, thinks there is nothing wrong whatsoever with public funding resulting in the non-office holders and candidates of one political party being used in advertising? I have not received an answer to that question to date and I would like one. Is that acceptable? Does the Taoiseach think it okay that candidates of one political party should appear in Government advertisements paid for by the taxpayer?

Why is the Taoiseach so completely uninterested in the comments from editors and journalists to the effect that they were pressurised to present Government advertising as part of normal coverage? It was a bit late to say yesterday that it should be clearly delineated and separate. The Taoiseach should not pretend that he did not know what was going on for the past number of weeks in respect of this matter. Will he stand over the fact that newspapers were informed that there would be more to come if they did as they were told? Does he not agree that an independent review of practice should be established to ensure that proper party political boundaries and political boundaries are respected? If he does not agree with this, could he indicate why? If the Taoiseach is completely satisfied and fully confident that everything is fine, surely an independent review will simply say that.

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