John Crown (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last night the US State Department expressed its concern to the Government of Bahrain regarding the fact that the appeal of the Bahraini medical staff had been rejected and that these individuals, some of whom have been given very lengthy sentences, had been reincarcerated. As Members will be aware - I am grateful to them for this - last year the House unanimously passed a resolution asking the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to clarify this matter with the Government of Bahrain. In addition, Senator Averil Power was a member of the delegation of Irish factfinders who travelled to Bahrain last year to try to ascertain what was taking place. This matter was in abeyance for some time as a result of the appeals process, but the final appeal has now been held and some of the staff involved are facing prison terms of as much as ten or 15 years. There is a body of opinion which states the only crime they committed was performing their professionally mandated duties to care for people who were victims of the disturbances taking place in Bahrain at the time. I ask the Leader to communicate our concerns to the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and ask him whether he has had an opportunity to pursue this matter further since it was originally raised.

I am not certain whether I wish to ask for a debate or clarification in respect of a particular matter. I refer to an issue which has been of great concern to me for some time, namely, the amount of money spent on public relations contracts at all levels - from hospitals up to the Minister - within the health service. No public money should be spent on public relations. The role of public relations consultants is not to foster communication, rather it is to engage in an attorney-client style relationship with the person or entity that pays them and to make that person or entity look good. People in all parts of the public service should be in a position to stand on and speak for their own records. Senior civil servants in the Department of Health, senior HSE officials and senior consultants should, in rotation, be obliged to make themselves available to discuss publicly what is happening in their areas of expertise. One of the medical journalists in this country whom I respect the most has been banging his head against a stone wall in trying to obtain figures from individual hospitals. The catch-22 with which one is faced when one contacts a hospital to ask about the nature of its public relations contract is that the person to whom one speaks is the public relations consultant for that hospital. These individuals are not very forthright in volunteering the information one requires.

I know it may take some time to obtain it, but will the Leader inquire if the Minister will provide itemised information on the total amount spent on external public relations contracts and internal press relations and public relations officers by the Department of Health, the HSE and the various quangos, particularly the National Cancer Control Programme and the Health Information Quality Authority? It is apparent that every one of the hospitals has an external public relations contract. There are public relations companies which are billing these hospitals for their services at a time when waiting lists are lengthening and staff numbers have been frozen. I was horrified to discover yesterday, even though a doctor and a nurse have been appointed to run the national rare diseases metabolic programme for adults - it is based in the Mater Hospital and run in conjunction with Temple Street Children's University Hospital - that a secretary could not be hired as a result of the embargo on recruitment in the public service. This is madness. I will bet that both hospitals are paying public relations consultants. This matter which is part of a larger problem relating to management consultants tends to be ignored. What is happening in respect of public relations is real, finite, quantifiable and wrong. If the Leader could discover what is going on, I would be extremely grateful.