Roger T. Garland
Question:4 Mr. Garland asked the Taoiseach if he will outline which Department were responsible for the cost of providing and running the free information telephone service in operation in the last week of the referendum campaign.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Maastricht Referendum.
Roger T. Garland
Question:5 Mr. Garland asked the Taoiseach whether the Government used external advertising during the Maastricht campaign, including billboards and electronic advertising boards; if so, if he will outline the locations of these advertising sites.
Roger T. Garland
Question:6 Mr. Garland asked the Taoiseach if his broadcast on Tuesday, 16 June 1992 involved extra Government expenditure.
Roger T. Garland
Question:7 Mr. Garland asked the Taoiseach if he will outline the newspapers and periodicals in which advertisements appeared regarding the Maastricht referendum.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 4 to 7, inclusive, together.
The Government's campaign on the recent Maastricht referendum employed all medial and communications facilities appropriate to such a campaign. This included advertising in the national and provincial newspapers as well as in a number of magazines such asBusiness and Finance and Women's Way; billboards at various sites throughout the country and electronic boards in Limerick and Cork; my broadcast on RTE; and the freephone information service which was operated by the Department of Foreign Affairs in co-operation with a number of other Government Departments directly concerned.
As I indicated recently in replying to a question from Deputy Spring, the costs of printing the White Paper and the "Short Guide to the Treaty" and of distributing the latter to households throughout the country will be met from the Foreign Affairs Vote, while the balance of the campaign costs will be met from subhead B of the Vote for my Department. The latter will be met by way of a Supplementary Estimate to be put before the Dáil on Friday. The total costs are estimated to be within the figure of £600,000 I mentioned previously.
As I have also indicated, invoices for most elements of the Government's campaign are still outstanding. When the final costings are known, they can be made available, in appropriate detail, to the House.
I must say I find the Taoiseach's reply not very helpful in terms of detail. I would like to ask him a number of supplementaries to try to flesh out what he has been saying. First of all, how many people were employed on this freefone line and how many hours did they work? What was the cost of the calls and the number of inquiries? In regard to the special Government broadcast, will the Taoiseach confirm if Carr Communications were retained and, if so, how much were they paid? Did RTE make a charge for the time or was the time free?
The number of people involved in the freefone telephone services was the number that would normally be required to staff the telephones for the duration for which it was in operation. The approximate cost is estimated as being somewhere in the region of £5,000. We have not got the final detail. As soon as I have, the House will have it.
If the Deputy wants to delay the House I can go through various items that have been estimated and the cost for them if it is of any help to him, but I would expect that he would be better to wait until the final details are in and I will give him the full details. I do not know whether the Deputy still wants to know the siting of every billboard in all the various towns and cities around the country. If that is what he wants, I am certainly prepared to let him know but I think it would be a waste of time.
I agree that perhaps this is not the time or the place to discuss the detail behind these questions but if the Taoiseach were to write to me with the full details I certainly would accept that. The Taoiseach has not answered my question about Carr Communications and the question of time on RTE.
I have no trouble whatsoever in extracting the additional cost of Carr Communications. The figure eludes me at the moment. I gave it in this House prior to this and if the Deputy were reading the record of the House he would know. Nevertheless I will have no hesitation in sending it to him. It is a very small amount of money anyway because, as I am sure the Deputy knows, Carr Communications are engaged in a similar activity here in the House on contract and consequently much of the expense was carried in that regard. There were something like 153 billboard sites occupied by the advertisements in relation to the Maastricht Treaty and they were spread out across a number of towns and cities at the most appropriate places that were found to be available at the time. I would also like to tell the Deputy that the budgeted figure for the overall cost, including the Department of Foreign Affairs and this House, is inside the figure I have quoted in this House, but I will give the Deputy the detail of the additional costs in relation to Carr Communications by writing to him today.
Would the Taoiseach agree that his broadcast during this referendum was without precedent? Would he agree further that it does not set a precedent and will not be a precedent for ministerial broadcasts in a contested referendum campaign in the future? Would the Taoiseach also agree that if it is desirable to have a ministerial broadcast at all in regard to the matter of a referendum it would be better to follow the practice of the French President in having that at the outset of the campaign rather than in the last few days?
It is a matter of choice for the Taoiseach of the day as to how and when he times a national broadcast. President Mitterrand takes his own decisions and I take mine. I regarded it as the most effective time to do it and that is what I did.
In view of the fact that the Fianna Fáil Party have expressed the view in the past that the electoral system should be changed, would they consider that in the event that they were introducing a similar referendum to that end that the Taoiseach of the day, who happened to be a member of Fianna Fáil, would be entitled to requisition RTE time, without right to reply, in those circumstances?
The Taoiseach of the day is more likely, on balance, to be a Fianna Fáil Taoiseach rather than a Fine Gael Taoiseach.
It has been 50:50 for the last 24 years.
I do not expect that we will have another referendum. The referendum for the integration of Europe was held and successfully passed and I think that is all that matters. Any recriminations afterwards I will leave to others.
I can assure the Taoiseach that a Fine Gael Taoiseach would have no wish to tamper with the electoral system, unlike Fianna Fáil.
You had better start tampering with it shortly.
(Interruptions.)
I suggest that the Taoiseach is quite wrong in saying that the only thing that matters is that the referendum was carried. We have to ensure that the Government are accountable for what they do with the people's money. Will the Taoiseach indicate to what extent An Post were used for the distribution of the "Short Guide to the Maastricht Treaty" and to what extent were An Post used for the distribution of the polling cards? If private companies were used will the Taoiseach indicate which private distribution companies?
An Post were used to the maximum extent possible in relation to the delivery of the short guide. The matter of polling cards and how they are distributed is a matter for the returning officer of the day and not for the Government or the Taoiseach.
I asked the Taoiseach if private companies were used for the distribution of the guide and if he could give an indication which private companies were used and to what extent.
That is a separate question for detail but I have already stated to the Deputy that An Post were used to the maximum extent possible and only in areas where An Post had advised us that they could not guarantee delivery were private couriers employed.