Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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148. To ask the Taoiseach the number of persons currently working in the Government press office and the Merrion Street content team in tabular form. [52769/22]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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149. To ask the Taoiseach the number of persons working in his Department’s press office, communications team and social media team in tabular form. [52789/22]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 148 and 149 together.

While there are elements of communications to most policy roles in my Department, the Unit in my Department whose function relates to communications is the Government Information Service (GIS). GIS includes the Government Press Office and the MerrionStreet content team and works on a cross-functional and collaborative basis to:

- provide the Taoiseach, the Government and the Department with Press Office and Communications support;

- ensure strong collaboration and coordination among Press and Communications officials in other Government Departments and Agencies;

- coordinate, support, amplify and create communications around key Government priorities such as Housing for All, Climate Action / Energy, Ukraine, Shared Island, Brexit, COVID-19 and the National Wellbeing Framework; and

- lead the development of Government communications, support and encourage capacity-building in the area of communications and engagement across the civil and public service, and manage the “Government of Ireland” identity and unified web presence (www.gov.ie).

The civil servants in the Government Information Service come under the management of the Assistant Secretary for Corporate Affairs, while respecting the role of the Government Press Secretary and the Deputy Government Press Secretaries in day-to-day management of press and communications.

The composition of the current GIS team is outlined in the table below.