Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We are supporting this motion. By virtue of the fact we are supporting the Sinn Féin motion, and it would appear Fianna Fáil is also supporting it, one senses there is a trend towards the motion being successful. While I would not wish to pre-empt the outcome of the vote on Thursday, if it is the case that the Sinn Féin motion is successful, will the Government recognise the voice of this House in terms of what the motion seeks to do and will it act accordingly? We have noted a trend of late, when motions come before this House and the Government is defeated, that there is inaction and the voice of the House is not recognised. I want to restate that we are supporting the motion and we hope that, should it be successful, it will be respected.

The Tánaiste in his speech stated that the establishment of a strategic communications unit in the Department of the Taoiseach was to create a communications programme led by the Taoiseach under the auspices of the Global Irish Economic Forum. I believe he is taking the justification for the establishment of that so-called SCU out of context. That recommendation was made in 2011, when we were in the maelstrom of a global downturn and in a situation where 350,000 people had lost their jobs between 2008 and 2011. The context in which he is using that justification, I contend, is utterly out of context. I think there is a bit of fake news going on and a little bit of spin. He is justifying the establishment of an SCU based on a Global Irish Economic Forum, which many of us have attended, but that was at a time when we were quite literally on our knees economically. If it was the case that an SCU was to be established, that was with a view to messaging outwards and in a global context. It was not for the purpose of taking out two-page advertorials, with soft journalism quoting only from Fine Gael representatives in newspapers like The Corkman. It is disingenuous for the Tánaiste to come to the House and say that was the reasoning behind it.

We have yet to ascertain just how much was paid by the Government and, by extension, the taxpayer for these advertorials which only quoted from Fine Gael or Government representatives. They were pitched as hard news when, in fact, the only thing one could see that was a nod to the fact they were advertorials was that the pieces were headed, "Project Ireland 2040 - in partnership with Rialtas na hÉireann". It is a classic piece of propaganda. If we were told at the outset that this is what they were going to do, we might have understood the need to communicate. Every Government has the right to communicate and political communication is absolutely appropriate when one is in government. It is advisable that the work of the State and of the Government should be communicated to the people so they know what is happening on matters that pertain to their everyday lives. Nobody would argue against that premise. However, what we had here was a blatant and political use of taxpayers' funding to present a message in a way that was favourable to members of the Government down to the most local level. That is plain wrong.

We wish that, through this motion, should it be successful and if the will of this House is such that it seeks to abandon or abolish the strategic communications unit, the Government would adhere to the wishes of this House.

See this speech in context