asked the Taoiseach the reason the referendum publications on adoption were supplied to Fine Gael on the evening before the referendum and the total cost of all publicity material commissioned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Adoption and University Referenda.
3.
This was a supplementary delivery of 80,000 leaflets at the request of Fine Gael. The first delivery of 100,000 leaflets was effected on Friday, 29 June and a further 47,000 had also been supplied. The total cost of all the leaflets and of the relevant press, radio and television publicity commissioned by the Government Information Services was £90,000 approximately.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Would the Taoiseach not agree that the cause of the delay was that the first consignment of the leaflets in question were not ordered until 26 June? Is the Taoiseach also aware that those of us who were able to get the leaflets on Thursday, 28 June had to collect them in the basement of Government Buildings?
They were ordered earlier than 28 June. They were ordered on 26 June.
(Cavan-Monaghan): I said Tuesday, 26 June.
The Deputy is quite right in saying that. The three political parties were informed on Thursday, 28 June that they were available for collection from the Government Information Services. That was at 11.30 that morning. The Fianna Fáil Party and the Labour Party collected theirs but the Fine Gael Party asked that they be delivered to their respective headquarters and to points of collection around the country. Some Fine Gael Deputies, including Deputy Fitzpatrick and five or six others, took delivery of the leaflets themselves. As well as that, members of the Government took consignments of the leaflets and delivered them at collection points in different parts of the country for use by Fine Gael.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Would the Taoiseach not agree that it was very bad management, to say the least of it, not to order those leaflets until 26 June for a referendum which was due to be held on 5 July? Am I not right in saying that in the first instance the leaflets were delivered to Fianna Fáil headquarters and the Fine Gael Party were invited to collect them there? Is the Taoiseach not aware that when we questioned the reasonableness of that we were told we could collect them at the Taoiseach's Department when many of our Deputies had gone home? The Taoiseach was then asked to have them delivered.
This is a statement.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Is it not a fact that the Taoiseach then offered to have them delivered on Friday to the various constituency headquarters so that they could be distributed on the Sunday morning but that that was not done?
The only places to which the leaflets were distributed were the Fine Gael headquarters in Mount Street, the Fine Gael offices in Leinster House and to a number of points for collection by Fine Gael Deputies in different parts of the country. In every other case, in the case of Labour and Fianna Fáil, the leaflets were collected where they were said to be available.
I believe a million leaflets were published. Has the Taoiseach any idea how many of those were distributed?
That is a separate question.
I have not details of that. I believe the bulk of them were collected by Fianna Fáil. The Labour Party took about 47,000—I am not quite accurate about this—and Fine Gael had 100,000 delivered and a further 40,000 were either delivered or collected by Deputies.
(Cavan-Monaghan): In view of the Taoiseach's allegation of Fianna Fáil collecting their leaflets, is he aware——
It is not an allegation. It is a statement of fact.
(Cavan-Monaghan): Is the Taoiseach aware that in Cavan town Fianna Fáil had only a few leaflets and would not have been able to hand out any if they had not got them from Fine Gael?
The Deputy gave his leaflets to Fianna Fáil.
Is it not the case that when we asked if they could be delivered no contrary suggestion was made? We were awaiting and expecting a delivery and when we checked after discussion in this House we found the leaflets for Fine Gael were not available until 4.45 p.m. It was only after that the question arose of trying to retrieve the error made in failing to deliver them to us, to let us know they were to be collected or to have them available for us before 4.45 p.m. because Fianna Fáil had collected all that were available——
We cannot have a debate on this matter.
Statements have been made that are completely at variance with the facts. In any case it is rather silly to pursue this nit-picking operation. The fact was that all three political parties were telephoned at 11.30 a.m. on Thursday, 28 June. Those contacted in the political parties were the Fine Gael Chief Whip, the General Secretary of Fine Gael, Deputy Barry Desmond of the Labour Party, and the General Secretary of Fianna Fáil. All except Fine Gael agreed to collect the leaflets as suggested to them. Only Fine Gael objected.
The Taoiseach is not entitled to mislead the House and the country on what happened in this case. We asked that they be delivered——
Fine Gael refused to collect them.
We waited for them to be delivered because we understood they were being delivered. It was only when we inquired why they had not been delivered that we were told they were not there and would not be there until 4.45 p.m. Those are the facts and the Taoiseach should not mislead the House.
(Cavan-Monaghan): The Government bungled the ordering of the leaflets, just as they are bungling everything else in the country.
Fine Gael did not give out their leaflets.
(Cavan-Monaghan): We helped Fianna Fáil when they had no leaflets.
Fianna Fáil gave out the leaflets in County Cavan.
This is an undignified waste of Dáil time.
It was an undignified waste of public money.
May I ask why the Government waited until 26 June to order leaflets for the referenda on 5 July?
Other arrangements were made for publicity through radio, television and press. It was felt that a concentrated campaign over the weekend before the referenda would be the most effective way of alerting the public, particularly having regard to the very recent local and European elections. In so far as there might have been criticism of the numbers who voted, I think the main reason was that most people regarded the outcome as a foregone conclusion in the referenda.
Will the Taoiseach say if the decision to delay printing of the leaflets until 26 June was a decision taken unilaterally by the Government or did they consult the two Opposition parties who supported the referenda?
I think there were consultations early in the week before that.
Around 23 June or 24 June.
4.
asked the Taoiseach if any of the leaflets on the university and adoption referenda were distributed by the Government Information Services other than to the political parties; the number of leaflets so distributed; and the method of distribution.
The leaflets on the Seanad representation referendum were distributed to the political parties only. No requests for the leaflets were received from any other organisation.
Some 250,000 leaflets about the adoption referendum were given to the adoption societies. Of those 200,000 for the Adoptive Parents' Association were collected from the Government Information Services by a representative of that association. The remaining 50,000 leaflets were sent by train to the Cork Adoptive Parents' Association.
Does the Taoiseach not agree that the result of the referenda in terms of turn-out might have been more satisfactory if somebody, presumably from the Government Information Services, had not broadcast an appeal on the evening of polling day urging people to go out the following day to vote?
That is a separate question.
Will the Taoiseach say who had responsibility for taking that decision and issuing that advertisement on polling day, two hours before the polls closed?
There were advertisements the whole week before that. The Deputy did not mention that. I might add that Fianna Fáil were the only party who spent money themselves on advertisements.
(Cavan-Monaghan): That is wrong.
Fine Gael spent £80——
(Interruptions.)
Order.