Written answers

Tuesday, 21 May 2013

Department of Finance

Public Relations Contracts Expenditure

Photo of Peadar TóibínPeadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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174. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 145 of 7 May 2013, the number of press enquiries dealt with by the public relations company; the number of press releases issued; the number of media briefings organised and hourly rate and total hours paid for public relations services, for each year 2010, 2011 and 2012. [24051/13]

Photo of Michael NoonanMichael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) that the level of detail requested by the Deputy in relation to the number of press queries dealt with and number of media briefings organised by the NTMA’s external communications service provider is not readily available. In addition to formal press briefings arranged around events such as end-year results and annual report launches, informal media briefings are also provided by the NTMA and NAMA from time to time. Official press releases published by the NTMA, NAMA and related agencies are accessible on the relevant website. In addition to such releases, the NTMA may issue statements to individual journalists or groups of journalists and responds in writing to media queries on an on-going basis. The hourly rates charged by the service provider are commercially confidential. I provided full details of the overall costs of the provision of this service, which was put in place following a public procurement process, in my reply to the Deputy of 7 May last. The level of costs incurred reflects the very significant increase in domestic and international media interest in and queries to the NTMA following the establishment of NAMA in 2009 and the entry of Ireland into the EU Programme of Financial Assistance in 2010. The arrangement whereby the NTMA’s internal communications resources are supported by an external service provider allowed it to increase the resources applied to the service in a flexible manner and without incurring a permanent increase in its cost base.

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