Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

He lambasted the Tánaiste weekly for reliance on PR and accused the then Government of being a Government of spin. It is quite extraordinary to have 21 advisers, including three press secretaries. On top of that, there was an announcement this week that a PR firm will be employed to mediate between NPHET, the public health advisers, and the Government. It will be a buffer which will dilute and finesse the message because the Government has got it so wrong and made such a mess of conveying the public health message that we now need a PR spin team to try to get it right. I put it to the Taoiseach that this is not the right way to go about things. If one wants to instil confidence, clarity and certainty about public health measures, having a load of spin doctors and advisers who specialise in giving advice but may not have any particular expertise in the areas of substance that people want to know about is not the way forward. The Government needs to listen to people on the ground who really know and engage with them more. It would not have to spend so much on advisers or PR people if it listened to the front-line healthcare workers, nurses, laboratory people, doctors or taxi drivers who are out there. It should listen to the people on the ground who actually understand how things work on the ground. Then it might gain clarity about how to convey messages that would bring the public with it. The Government is compounding the mistakes it has made over the last number of weeks by surrounding itself with buffers, PR people and specialist advisers.

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