Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The line of attack from Fine Gael over the past 24 hours seems to be one of arguing that Opposition members’ sums do not add up. I do not know how the sums add up in respect of telling people they have to wait for additional supports while they are struggling to make ends meet, while across Departments more than 192 people are employed in communications, or PR spin to use a different term. The relationship between Departments and Ministers who are particularly bad at communicating and the large number of communications staff who are employed by those same Ministers and Departments is staggering. The Department of Transport has ten communications officers and the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has 11. That is 21 communications staff for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, probably the worst communicator in Irish politics. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, which the Taoiseach just left, tops the poll, with 15.5 such staff members. How can we justify having almost 200 employees whose sole job is to promote the Government at a time when there are so many pressures on services and on the delivery of supports to workers and families?

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