Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Here goes:

For Ministers it is not wise to get caught telling porky pies,

So now they fix you with a grin and package it all up with spin.

The Taoiseach built a spin machine. He tried to build it strong and lean,

Though when he took it for a spin, the spin backfired and did him in.

He thought he would spin without a care, but look at what happened to Tony Blair.

For spinners spin and get caught out, and lose the game without a doubt.

Whether we are discussing the spin of Tony Blair, President Donald Trump or the Taoiseach or the spin we see on our television screens in "House of Cards" or "The Thick of It", there is no doubt that the dark arts of media manipulation, deceit and spin are an important part of establishment politics. They are, first and foremost, to disguise the fact that politicians in the political establishment are serving the interests of the 1%, not those of the majority.

Sometimes it is not easy to spin when one is in a tight corner. Many must be scratching their heads and asking what is the point of a €5 million strategic communications unit in the light of what happened in Washington in recent days. Many years ago someone in Hollywood made a movie called "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Let us hope someone never makes a movie called "Mr. Varadkar Goes to Washington". Would it be a horror movie, a comedy, a farce or a tragedy? The Taoiseach stated he would speak truth to power and challenge racism and sexism. Instead, he acted like a toady and told lame jokes about the Irish planning system.

Everyone knows that there is spin to protect the interests of the powerful, but what is often not commented on as much is the way in which it is used to work against the interests of the powerless. The way in which the Government has communicated publicly on the issue of homelessness is a classic example of such spin. On 11 November the Taoiseach stated Ireland had one of the lowest levels of homelessness internationally. Two days later the head of the Housing Agency stated homelessness was normal, that it happened. The following day a senior official in the Dublin Region Homeless Executive stated it took years of bad behaviour to become homeless. The day after that the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, claimed that it was damaging to Ireland's international reputation when referring to criticism of the homelessness statistics. On 27 February information was released through the media that the number of people who were homeless had reached record levels and exceeded 9,000 for the first time. Is it any coincidence that the figure was released the afternoon before the beast from the east met Storm Emma and covered the country in snow? It was a Blairite spinner, Ms Jo Moore, who said the day of the collapse of the Twin Towers was a good one on which to bury bad news. With the €5 million spent on the strategic communications unit one could employ 1,000 nurses or teachers.

I will conclude with the words of a fomer American President: "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." We will support the motion.

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