Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to reassure the Deputies that the €2 million referred to in that particular article was not spent on promoting me or Fine Gael; it was spent on campaigns such as those I outlined earlier. They were campaigns such as Healthy Ireland, which is all about encouraging people to take those little steps that could improve their physical or mental health such as giving up smoking, exercising more and healthier eating. I do not believe that anyone in this House would think it money badly spent to invest in Healthy Ireland and to put across to the public those important messages regarding their own health. One could give no better health advice than to give up smoking, exercise more and eat healthier.

There was also a campaign to inform the public about Project Ireland 2040, what is in that programme and how it will affect people in their communities and their lives. Another campaign was the public information campaign for the self-employed to let self-employed people know what new benefits are being made available to them by the Government, how their tax burden is being reduced and how the Government is increasingly investing in supporting entrepreneurship. These are all public information campaigns. When I first became Taoiseach, I took the decision to centralise this funding in my Department through the special communications unit so the spending relates to that. This is why it has almost all occurred before July 2014. My intention was to centralise communications, improve communications and reduce the costs thereof. Given the political controversy that was caused, which became such a distraction to the project, that is no longer the case. In future, and indeed currently, these campaigns and information campaigns are funded through the line Department and not through my Department.

I disagree with Deputy McDonald's comments earlier. Anything that exposes somebody who makes false claims about health or particular cures is very much in the public interest. The Deputy and her party do not have a very good record on this with regard to her own conduct and that of some of her party members around the issue of CervicalCheck and cervical screening. Some of the false claims made by the Deputy's party caused increased anxiety for women in Ireland. There were false claims in health and false information was put out. Claims of false cures can cost lives and can damage people in the long term. I do not believe that anyone in this House should be ashamed of exposing those who make false claims around health and particular cures.

I do not have a breakdown of staffing numbers but I can provide those by correspondence. It is the 21st century and people who work in media no longer tend to be broken into social media, broadcast media and print media. Increasingly the platforms are all becoming one. The number of persons dedicated to social media may well be very small, or zero, but people tend to work across platforms these days and not just in one branch of media. My Twitter account is mine. I own it and all the posts are either done by me or by me in conjunction with one of my two political staff - not by civil servants.

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