Vol. 545 No. 5
6 Mr. Quinn asked the Taoiseach the origin and status of a document issued from his Department on 5 October 2001 entitled, Briefing Note on Labour Claims About Maastricht; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26418/01]
The briefing note to which the Deputy refers was drafted by my political advisers. Its purpose was for use by the Government press secretary in response to questions arising from the release to the political correspondents of a letter which had been sent by me in reply to the leader of the Labour Party's questions concerning certain constitutional aspects of the proposal to amend the Constitution in relation to the right to life of the unborn.
When the note was brought to my attention by the Government press secretary, I instructed him that, when briefing the political correspondents, he should only use the three central paragraphs that rebutted the points raised by the Deputy in his letter and to omit the comment which was also provided. He carried out this instruction to the letter as was evidenced by the articles published in the following morning's newspapers which only made reference to the said paragraphs.
However, later that evening, in response to a request from a political reporter with the RTE radio programme, "This Week", for a copy of my letter to Deputy Quinn, a member of staff in the Government press office inadvertently faxed a copy of the note to the journalist along with the other material he had requested. The document was not otherwise issued.
While I accept the Taoiseach's statement, does he agree there is a need to ensure that a clear division exists between the necessary and legitimate functions of a Government press office staffed by civil servants and the understandable and inevitable role of political advisers who will put a political spin, in terms of defence or attack, on comments emanating from the Fianna Fáil Taoiseach or the Progressive Democrats Tánaiste? Unfortunately, that was not the case in this instance but it allows us to avoid the politicisation of our professional and impartial Civil Service, which I know the Taoiseach agrees would be undesirable.
I broadly agree and that is the reason I am usually, though not always, shown notes by the Government press office, which is staffed exclusively by civil servants.
That is my point.
In these cases, I, and not others, usually mark the notes, which I did in this case. As the Deputy will appreciate, I try as much as I can to avoid political points and retain the distinction.
I suggest that the Taoiseach in a Supplementary Estimate arranges for his political office to get its own fax machine so that when it sends out political propaganda it is not given the title of the Government press office and the names of civil servants are not attached.
