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

The reason the Department of the Taoiseach was swamped with freedom of information requests about the strategic communications unit was that the information was withheld for quite some time. Media inquiries, Dáil questions and letters to senior officials failed to secure the necessary information. Considerable time and expense was required to obtain information which should have been made available more freely. The Taoiseach should not stand over the extraordinary cynicism of releasing a dump on documents on the day of an historic referendum. The documents sought under freedom of information were released at 5.38 p.m. last Friday.

I remind the Taoiseach that his predecessor confirmed previously that while decisions on what to release are taken by officials, it is regular practice for the Taoiseach's political and communications staff to know in advance about potentially controversial releases. Which members of the Taoiseach's staff were aware of the timing of this release? Why did they do nothing to ensure the information was not buried on a busy news day? We know that ministerial advisers in Britain have been obliged to resign over the years as a result of this kind of behaviour. Will the Taoiseach admit that this should not have happened? Will he give a commitment that it will not be allowed to happen again? It falls entirely within his remit in the Department to instruct that no action should be taken which might be construed as trying to reduce coverage.

I know the Taoiseach sees himself as a victim in this issue. He believes his commitment to modern communications has suffered at the hands of a sinister opposition. What has been revealed, and particularly what has been alluded to by Deputy McDonald, confirms that blatant politicisation was involved in this entire exercise. It was an abuse of taxpayers' money for a political project.

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