Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

If Mediaforce was the company that placed these advertisements, who in the Department signed off - as the client of Mediaforce - on behalf of the Government? Can the Taoiseach confirm that the strategic communications unit plans to place advertisements on every local radio station throughout the country? How much money is to be spent on these?

Lots of people have told me there are advertisements in cinemas at present at the end of which the Taoiseach is featured. Could the Taoiseach indicate the number of cinemas in which the advertisements running? People from Wexford and other counties, not just Dublin, have seen the advertisements as part of cinema advertising. Could the Taoiseach explain to us now or later in detail if he does not have the details to hand the names of the cinemas and so on?

I also want to ask the Taoiseach about section 41(3) of the Broadcasting Act 2009, which prohibits an advertisement that is directed towards a political end. This is presumably why RTÉ, TV3 and national radio cannot carry these advertisements. Two weeks ago and again last week, I suggested to the Taoiseach that this is essentially unethical and crosses a line for which political parties are funded as political parties. We have no problem with every Fine Gael hopeful and would-be candidate being funded by Fine Gael. We object to the Government of the day funding its candidates in advertorials or paid for advertising. There is a gap in the law but I will ask the Opposition parties to have a look at the law so that in respect of the ban on political advertising, which has served the country well in a variety of contested spaces down through the decades, we would look at introducing the same measure so political funding goes to the parties and they spend it within the law as they see fit but the action of the Government is on behalf of the people of Ireland. What the Government is doing is unethical and crosses a line.

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