Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the clarification that the Taoiseach he is moving back to the traditional way whereby health promotional initiatives are funded by the Department of Health and education initiatives by the Department of Education and Skills. Notwithstanding the Taoiseach stating that his initiative was a new departure, taking the budget line away from line Departments, €290,000 was spent on promoting Healthy Ireland yet the Department of Health's own promotion was not diminished. It was a case of the funding being as well as, not instead of. There was also spending of €30,000 on videos promoting the budget last year.

What communication plan does the Taoiseach's Department have for this year? As the Taoiseach said, some things might be unknown. Will there, for example, be a referendum this year? Do we know and, if so, will the Taoiseach's Department be involved in expending money on that? Has that been decided yet? To be clear, in respect of normal line Department expenditure, is the Taoiseach telling us that his Department will no longer be involved in any expenditure to co-support or co-fund promotional videos or social media in that regard?

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